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THE 

History of Westborough, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Part I. 
THE EARLY HISTORY. 

By HEMAN PACKARD DEFOREST. 

Part II. 
THE LATER HISTORY. 

By EDWARD CRAIG BATES. 




/ 



n <y 



WESTBOROUGH: 

PUBLISHED BY THE TOWN. 

1891. 









Copyright, 1S91, 
By C. S. Henry. 



IHntoersttg Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



GENERAL PREFACE. 



'^pHE warrant for the town meeting of March 7, 
■*■ 1887, had an article, " To see if the town will 
print in book form the history of the town as 
gathered by Rev. H. P. DeForest and others, or 
act anything in relation to the same." 

At an adjourned meeting, held March 21, the- 
town voted, " That the moderator appoint a com- 
mittee of three to take the matter into consid- 
eration, and report, with an estimate of the expense, 
at a future meeting." 

George B. Brigham, George Forbes, and Joshua 
E. Beeman were appointed as the committee. At 
a meeting held April 27 of the same year the 
committee reported that Rev. H. P. DeForest 
could furnish the earlier history, and some one 
here in town the later, but that they could give 
nothing definite in regard to the expense, as Mr. 
DeForest would leave the matter to the town to 
pay what they thought best. The committee made 
no recommendation, and no action was taken at 
this meeting ; but at a town meeting held Septem- 



IV PREFACE. 

ber 21 the committee reported further, recommend- 
ing that the town procure one thousand copies, 
and that the sum of $800.00 be appropriated to 
cover the expense of printing and publishing the 
same. 

The town voted " that the report be accepted 
and its recommendations adopted, and that the 
committee carry out its recommendations, and have 
power to fill any vacancy in the committee." Mr. 
George Forbes having died, Mr. Charles S. Henry 
was chosen as a member of the committee. 

Mr. DeForest was engaged to write the earlier 
history of the town, and Mr. Edward C. Bates to 
write the later history. 

Judge William T. Forbes has written a chapter 
on the early land-grants which is of great value. 

A few biographical sketches of men who have 
been prominent in town affairs have been pre- 
pared, and several portraits are given, also views 
of a number of our public buildings. 

The pictures are most of them the work of the 
Boston Photogravure Company, and the engrav- 
ing for the wood-cuts has been done by Mr. Al- 
bert E. Wood, of New York city, a native of 
this town. 

As we finish our book and present it to the 
town we regret that we must speak of the death 
of Mr. George B. Brigham, the chairman of our 
committee, to whose efforts the publication of this 
History is due. He brought the subject before 



PREFACE. V 

the town, labored faithfully and untiringly to make 
the work thorough and accurate, and hoped to live 
to see the book published. 

We submit our work to the town, hoping that 
it may prove useful in preserving its records and 
stimulating our people to take a deeper interest 
in them. 

JOSHUA E. BEEMAN, 
CHARLES S. HENRY, 

Committee. 
Westborough, March 10, 1891. 



PREFACE TO PART I. 



PHE only motive which has induced me to give 
■*■ this sketch of the earlier history of West- 
borough to the public is the conviction that the 
material which had been incidentally gathered in 
connection with my work and residence there ought 
not to be lost. There is that in the history of the 
earlier growth of all our New England towns which 
is of permanent interest to the historian, the ge- 
nealogist, and the student of social forces ; and it 
is desirable that every town should embody in 
some accessible form, for the benefit of its own 
people and their descendants, such facts of its early 
struggles and development as may be rescued 
from oblivion. Faulty as I know this sketch to be, 
it may serve such a purpose. The manner of its 
origin is as follows. In 1874 the Congregational 
church, of which I happened at that time to be 
pastor, celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth 



viii PREFACE. 

anniversary of its organization. It fell to me to 
write the story of that period. In 1876, when all 
the towns kept the centennial of Independence, I 
was requested to deliver the historical oration on 
the Fourth of July. Not long afterward the town 
voted a request that the material thus gathered 
might be prepared, with such other as I might be 
able to collect, for publication, and appointed a 
committee to that end. Busied with the care of a 
large parish, my time for such work was very lim- 
ited; and it progressed very slowly until 1880, when 
I was called away from the town, and the material 
was consigned to a drawer, where it remained un- 
touched for some eight years. But at that time a 
few citizens of Westborough who were especially 
interested in saving its history from oblivion, pro- 
cured the passage of a vote in town meeting calling 
for the history, and appointing a new committee to 
attend to the matter. At their urgent request, sec- 
onded by my own feeling as to the recklessness of 
consigning any historical material to destruction, I 
consented to undertake the difficult task of resus- 
citating my buried work, and finishing, at a distance 
from the locality, and with too much remoteness from 
the fresh memory of previous work, the task which I 



PREFACE. IX 

had been obliged to drop. It has been entirely re- 
written, some of it more than once. It represents, 
as all historical work must do, the study of many 
weeks and months, scattered through years which 
have been crowded with other duties. I have 
tried to write a continuous narrative, believing it 
more likely to be read than if divided, in the 
manner of many local histories, into disconnected 
sections. 

I am indebted to many helpers for assistance 
rendered, at many times and in various ways, since 
the inception of the work. I have consulted the 
local histories of the vicinity, especially Hudson's 
Marlborough, Peter Whitney's Worcester County, 
and Joseph Allen's Northborough, and have given 
credit where these have been quoted. To the late 
E. M. Phillips I am under many an obligation for 
reminiscence and story of the days of his boyhood. 
To the late Hon. Samuel M. Griggs, whose interest 
in the town and its history was always keen, and 
whose knowledge of facts and places was excep- 
tional, I owe more than to any one else in the 
earlier days of this study Judge W. T. Forbes and 
Mrs. Forbes have rendered great service in the 
past year, and Messrs. J. A. Fayerweather and F. W. 



X PREFACE. 

Forbes have assisted much at various times. And 
finally, to the Committee of Publication, Messrs. 
Brigham, Beeman, and Henry, and my coadjutor, 
Mr. E. C. Bates, I owe many courtesies and helps. 
Of the town itself I have only the happiest memo- 
ries, and it has been pleasant to recall them in this 
gathering up of the threads of many years' work. 

H. P. De FOREST. 
Detroit, Mich., 

November, 1889. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 

Introduction ill 

$art I. 

Preface to Part I v 

CHAPTER I. 

Topography. — Indian History and Legend. — First 
White Settlers i 

CHAPTER II. 

Earliest Landholders within the Limits of the Pres- 
ent Town. — "King" Philip's War 15 

CHAPTER III. 

Preliminary Movements toward a New Town. — Indian 

Troubles during " Queen Anne's War " 29 

CHAPTER IV. 

Incorporation, and Beginnings of Town Life .... 42 

CHAPTER V. 

HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

Organization of a Church, and Ordination of the 

First Settled Minister 72 



xii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Page 

Records. — Church Affairs. — Schools. — Earthquake. 

— Growth of the Town Sy 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The New County. — Beginnings of Division. — Church 
Music 103 

CHAPTER IX. 

Church Order. — Phases of Church Life. — The Great 

Awakening. — An Anniversary Sermon 118 

CHAPTER X. 
The First Precinct 131 

CHAPTER XI. 

The French and Indian War. — Beginnings of the Re- 
volution. — Church Music again 146 

CHAPTER XII. 
In the Revolutionary War 158 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Contemporary Matters of Local Interest. — Discus- 
sion of Church Government. — Death of Mr. Park- 
man 176 

CHAPTER XIV. 

From the Death of Mr. Parkman to the End of the 

Eighteenth Century 190 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Xlll 



CHAPTER XV. 

Page 

Items of Progress. — Ecclesiastical Trials. — The Be- 
ginning of Modern Improvements 208 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Business Development. — The Diffusion of Intelligence 222 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Later Ecclesiastical History 231 



$art II. 

Preface to Part II 244 

CHAPTER I. 

The Civil War. — Action of the Town. — In the Field. 

— Soldiers' Sewing Society 245 

CHAPTER II. 

Records of Soldiers in the Civil War 274 

CHAPTER III. 

The Soldiers' Monument. — Fires and New Buildings. — 

Celebrations 328 

CHAPTER IV. 

Growth of the Toavn. — Population. — Agriculture and 

Manufactures. — Wealth 344 



XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Page 

\c Public Schools. — Willow Park Seminary. — Public Li- 
brary. — Poor-Farm. — Fire Department .... 372 

CHAPTER VI. 

Newspapers. — Post-Office. — Banks. — District Court. 

— Lyman School. — Insane Hospital 391 

CHAPTER VII. 
c Prominent Societies 405 

CHAPTER VIII. 

• Waterworks. — Phenomena. — New Buildings. — Other 

Improvements 415 



3Cppen&ir. 

I. Biographical Sketches 431 

II. Land Grants 454 

III. Town Officers 465 

IV. Representatives to General Court 470 

V. Votes for Governor 472 

VI. Rev. Ebenezer Parkman's History of Westbor- 

ough 479 

Index 4§3 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



THE SQUARE Frontispiece 

Insane Hospital, across Lake Chauncy 18 

The Whitney Place 36 

Ebenezer Parkman 66 

Breck Parkman 106 

East Main Street 134 

Eli Whitney 192 

Old Arcade 208 

Charles Parkman 218 

Otis Brigham 226 

Unitarian Church 234 

Congregational Church .'.... 238 

Westborough, from Whitney Hill 245 

Town Hall and Baptist Church 250 

Soldiers' Monument 274 

Post-Office Block 332 

Rev. Heman P. Deforest 340 

Elmer Brigham 352 

George B. Brigham 360 

William R. Gould 368 

The High-School Building 376 

William Curtis 380 

Christopher Whitney 388 

John A. Fayerweather 396 

Dr. N. Emmons Paine 402 

Residence of John A. Fayerweather 412 



XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Residence of Mrs. H. K. Taft 418 

St. Luke's Church and Rectory , . . 424 

The Whitney House 426 

Charles B. Parkman 43 2 

Lyman Belknap 438 

Horace Maynard 44 2 

Henry K. Taft 450 

Daniel F. Newton . 466 



a^apg an& fMan£. 



Map of Westborough 1 

Floor-Plan of the First Meeting-House 55 

Floor-Plan of the Second Meeting-House 138 

The Original Marlborough, and the New Towns " set 

off " from it 45^ 

The Original Chauncy, and some of the Territory 

afterward Annexed 457 

Map of Westborough in 1766 463 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 













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THE 



EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



CHAPTER I. 

To 1660. 

TOPOGRAPHY. — INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. — FIRST 
WHITE SETTLERS. 

THE traveller from Boston toward Worcester by the 
Albany Railroad, after passing Cochituate Lake and 
Farm Pond, strikes the valley of the Sudbury River near 
Ashland, and following it for some eight miles beyond that 
village, through an uninteresting region broken by two 
small manufacturing stations and ending in a long and 
lonely stretch of wood and swamp, comes suddenly upon 
the central square of a busy town, with its brick blocks 
and tree-lined streets, its lumber-yards and factories, with 
church spires rising beyond the square. It is a good 
place to stop, — and to live, if one is looking for a coun- 
try home, with some charming scenery, and not too far 
from the whirl of life ; with school, church, and library 
at hand, and easy communication with the appliances 
of civilization. The village of Westborough, which is in 
the centre of the town, is only ten miles due east from 
Worcester, and twenty-nine west-southwest from Boston, 
as the bird flies. It lies in the southern portion of a 
plain, which traverses the area of the town from north- 



2 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

west to southeast, terminating in the cedar swamp through 
which the train passes. It belongs to-day in the highest 
class of New England villages ; its population is largely 
descended from the native stock, — industrious, enterpris- 
ing, and law-abiding; believing loyally in New-England 
institutions, and not yet emancipated from the sway of 
conscience. 

The town, extending from two to three miles about the 
village in all directions, has numerous good and well-kept 
farms, with thrifty-looking buildings, and a delightful 
mingling of woodland, meadow, pond, and hill, which has 
endless charms for the lover of Nature. An irregular range 
of low green hills rises to the south and west, and another 
to the northeast. One never tires of the views they give 
in payment for an easy climb ; and walks and drives of 
picturesque beauty are numberless. From the highest 
point of these hills one gets an inspiring view of Wachu- 
sett, twenty miles away, and of a line of sentinels that 
guard the northwestern horizon, comprising Monadnock, 
Watatic, and the Temple Hills. There are long reaches of 
meadow, lying between wood and knoll, and terminating, 
perhaps, in a far-off glimpse of a church spire relieved 
against the blue background of a hill. There are pictu- 
resque confusions of hill and dale, — now shutting one into 
a sheltered nook; now, after a steep climb up a rocky 
slope, confronting him with a sweep of landscape that 
reaches to New Hampshire. There are walks through 
the woods, the path strewn with soft pine-needles or rich 
brown oak-leaves. Here the road winds unexpectedly 
round a sharp curve, and runs down the hill to a rude 
bridge by an old mill ; again, as it climbs a gentle slope, 
the well-tilled fields sweep away toward the town, with 
fringes of maple on the farther verge, which in October 



TOPOGRAPHY. 3 

burn with a hectic flush against the greens and browns 
of the meadow. 

The water area of the town is comparatively small. 
There are no large streams, but brooks are numerous, and 
those which are fed from the western slopes of the hills 
gather themselves in the northerly meadows into the Assa- 
bet River; while those that rise on the eastern slopes, col- 
lecting in Cedar Swamp, form the Sudbury. These two 
streams, receiving their names before they leave the town 
area, separate widely, then flow together, and uniting 
in the Concord, flow to the Merrimac, and so to the sea. 
But if there are no rivers, there are ponds, of which 
Chauncy is king, and which unfolds its full beauty only 
when seen from the slopes of the Hospital grounds, with 
the village spires in the distance, relieved against the back- 
ground of the southern hills. Hidden darkly at the foot 
of the wooded hills to the west, its seclusion only just 
now broken in upon by a railroad cutting, lies Hocco- 
mocco, whose true and better name is Hobomoc. Down 
in the recesses of Cedar Swamp there lies another pond, 
as one may find in the winter if he will thread the mazes 
of the frozen forest. And high up on the southern hill- 
sides is still another, now enlarged by artificial dredging 
and embankment, which supplies the water for the village, 
and has natural " head " enough to drench the village 
spires through a well-directed hose. 

Westborough is one of the " borough towns." That 
means, in local parlance, that it is a part of the area — now 
including also Marlborough, Northborough, Southborough, 
and a part of Hudson — which, about the time that Charles 
II. was proclaimed king of England, was incorporated as 
" Marlborow." The present Westborough is the south- 
western part of the ancient " plantacion," with some addi- 



4 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

tions on the west and south. The story I am to try to tell 
runs back to the middle of the seventeenth century, and 
comes down to the middle of the nineteenth. It is the story 
of a quiet inland town, with few striking episodes ; of small 
importance to the history of State or nation ; not great in 
the arena of public affairs, but taking its share, without 
either fuss or flinching, in the movements that the times 
have thrust upon it. What I should be glad to do, if 
possible, is to " develop," as the photographers say, a 
few pictures that have long lain concealed in musty 
documents and half-forgotten traditions, and give them 
a little reality to the descendants of the men and women 
who subdued the wilderness, and made the pleasant life 
of to-day possible. 

In the earliest time of which we have any knowledge, — 
the time of Indian occupation, — this region was a border- 
land between two or three tribes. It is quite impossible 
to clear up the confusion which rests on the topography of 
Indian tribes, and leads nearly every writer on the subject 
to a different conclusion. They were still a nomadic race, 
to a great extent; their boundaries were flexible, and the 
relative subordination of tribes and clans to one another 
varied from time to time. In general, it seems reasonable 
to adopt the statements of Major Gookin, the friend and 
helper of John Eliot, who travelled over the whole region 
and had friendly intercourse with all the tribes. Accord- 
ing to his division the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, held 
southeastern Massachusetts, — including Bristol, Plymouth, 
and Norfolk counties, — as far north as Charles River. The 
Massachusetts occupied the district north of Charles River, 
and westward from Massachusetts Bay to the western 
boundary of Middlesex County. The Pawtuckets were 



INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. 5 

north of the Massachusetts, covering Essex County and 
part of north Middlesex, and extending into lower New 
Hampshire. Westward of these tribes were the Nip- 
mucks, whose principal domain was along the Nipmuck 
or Blackstone River, but also extended westerly toward 
the Connecticut. To this tribe belonged the Indians of 
Hassanemisco, whom Eliot had gathered into the sem- 
blance of a town on Grafton Hill. 

Near the junction of the Concord and Merrimac rivers, 
— now in Lowell, — the Wamesits, a clan of the Paw- 
tucket tribe, had their headquarters ; and to this clan be- 
longed the Indians of the Marlborough settlement. The 
territory of the present Westborough, therefore, had the 
Nipmucks on the one hand and the Wamesits on the 
other, while the Massachusetts were close by on the east. 
It is uncertain which of the tribes built their camp-fires 
around these ponds, and gave them their names, and wove 
their superstitions about them, since they all alike belonged 
to the great Algonquin race and spoke its language. 
But they have left their traces in two or three localities. 
Chauncy Pond was to them Naggawoomcom, or " Great 
Pond ; " and the pretty sheet of water at the foot of what 
was then a serpent-haunted hill, hidden among thick trees, 
its waters always dark with shadows, its shores a lurking- 
place for wild beasts, received from these imaginative 
children of Nature the name of Hobomoc, — their Evil 
Spirit, to whose dwelling-place they believed it to be a 
hidden entrance. 

The late Horace Maynard, of Tennessee, who was a 
Westborough boy, made use, in his college days, of the 
old Indian traditions about this latter spot to weave a very 
pretty legend of the tiny lakelet, — a tale of love and strat- 
agem and revenge. There is a chief and a rival ; a dusky 



6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

maiden beloved of both, but soon to be wedded by the 
chief. There is a little skiff upon the lake paddled by the 
maid ; a dark figure plunging into the water, and swimming 
silently under the surface till he can pull the unsuspecting 
bride down to her death, so mysteriously that they who 
spy it from the shore attribute it to the evil Hobomoc him- 
self. Then, as a year is finished, comes a warning to the 
murderer, mysterious and awful; the second year, another; 
the third, a vengeance, weird and terrible, sweeps him to 
his watery doom beneath the dark surface of this mouth of 
hell. And thereafter when any of the tribe crossed the 
spot he dropped a stone into its depths, until the cairn 
rose above the surface. 

There would be little use in looking for the monument 
to-day. But there are few spots that are the worse for a 
legend or two ; and this one lends itself to the purpose 
with a singular suggestiveness, as the imaginative youth 
from the old farm-house on the hill discovered. 

Besides the names they have left and the legends 
they have suggested, there is very little by which we may 
trace the occupancy of the Indian proprietors. There 
is a measure of probability that we have such a trace in 
the name of the Jackstraw Pasture, beyond the house of 
Nathan M. Knowlton. This section was granted to one 
William Beeres about the time of the incorporation of 
Marlborough, and was then known as Jack Straw's Hill. 
This indicates a previous Indian occupation. In April, 
163 1, Governor Winthrop was visited in Boston by Wah- 
ginnacut, — "a sagamore upon the River Quonehtacut 
[Connecticut], which lies west of Naragancet," — "with 
John Sagamore and Jack Straw, — an Indian who had 
lived in England, and had served Sir Walter Raleigh, 
and was now turned Indian again, — and divers of their 



INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. 7 

sannops," who " brought a letter to the governour, etc." 
Whether this was the Indian who gave the name to 
the hill in question is uncertain, but it is not impossible. 
Accounts have been found of two Indians carried by- 
Raleigh from his Roanoke colony to England; and of 
these the only one who remained here was known as Man- 
teo. He was the first Indian baptized by the English 
colonists, and served them as scout and interpreter. He 
was made " king" of an island in Pamlico Sound, which 
still bears the name of Manteo. Raleigh's expedition to 
this coast was in 1584; and a youth who was twenty 
years old at that time would be sixty-seven at the 
time of the interview with Governor Winthrop. There 
is not sufficient evidence to make any positive asser- 
tions, but the coincidence of statements is highly inter- 
esting. A hundred years later there were three Indians 
bearing the surname of Jackstraw living in Hopkinton. 
They might easily enough have been the descendants of 
this Indian, as the Hopkinton line is not far from the 
locality which bears his name. How he came by so sin- 
gular a cognomen is not easily answered, but a curious 
extract from the " Narrative of Phineas Pratt," who came 
to this country in 1622, gives a possible hint. He says: — 

" Not long after the overthrow of the first plantation in the 
bay, Capt. Louit Cam to yer Cuntry. At the Time of his being 
at Pascataway, a Sacham, or Sagamor, Gaue two of his men, on 
to Capt. Louit, & An other to Mr. Tomson ; but on yt was ther 
said, 'How can you trust those Salvagis? Cale the nam of on 
Watt Tyler, & ye other Jack Straw, after ye names of the two 
greatest Rebills yt ever weare in Eingland.' " 

Pratt relates this out of the fulness of his heart, for he 
had suffered much at the hands of the Indians, and con- 
sidered them the most treacherous rascals alive. 



8 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

There were other Indians in the vicinity, of whom the 
white men, on their arrival, purchased lands ; but they had 
already disappeared, to a considerable extent, before that 
time. For we remember that only eight years before the 
" Mayflower " touched Plymouth Bay there had been a 
pestilential fever all along the coast, which had decimated 
the tribes. And with the coming of the English the days 
of the natives were numbered. Not that the Pilgrims had 
any purpose of extermination, or even of conquest. They 
had even cherished the hope, as no small part of their 
object in coming to this wilderness, " to propagate and 
advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those 
remote parts of the world." And no sooner were they 
freed from the necessity of using all their strength in se- 
curing a bare subsistence for themselves, than they took 
measures to civilize and Christianize the aborigines. As 
early as 1644 the General Court took cognizance of the 
matter, and ordered the county courts to take care of the 
Indians in their several shires. In the two succeeding 
years still more definite action was taken, looking toward 
the gathering of them into communities, and bringing 
them under religious instruction. 

John Eliot was the leading spirit in this movement, full 
of zeal for the Christianizing of the red men ; and as soon 
as the government indorsement was obtained, he began 
the work at Nonantum and Natick which has made his 
name a household word. By 1654 he had gathered the 
" praying Indians " into a colony at Natick, and was pe- 
titioning the General Court " that those Indians might be 
settled, who were scattered yet, in convenient places un- 
claimed by the English." The places indicated by him 
were some of them within or near the locality of our story. 
Naguncook was at Hopkinton ; Hassanemisco, at Graf- 



INDIAN HISTORY AND LEGEND. 9 

ton; and a third settlement was on Okommokamesit 1 Hill, 
just north of the present village of Marlborough. These 
Indians were partially civilized, and quite different from 
the wild forest-rangers who named hill and lake and 
stream. They had lost their picturesqueness ; they had 
certainly gained something; but they were, at this stage 
in their development, a strange and uncouth compound of 
barbarism and civilization. Their teachers had committed 
the common mistake of trying to graft advanced English 
customs on undeveloped natures; and the result was a 
comical incongruity, like the blanket and silk hat of the 
modern Indian of the West. They had awakened their 
religious impulses, but their ethical knowledge was very 
slight, and they had no trained instincts. They had been 
forced to have a local government like that of the white 
men, in forgetfulness of the fact that it had taken the nur- 
tured English mind some centuries to arrive at the idea of 
self-government. They were organized into churches, and 
that too of the prevailing Congregational pattern, — which 
being a new thing, reasoned their teachers, and the best 
thing, must be the thing for the savage. They were taught 
to cultivate the land, — which was exactly the right thing, 
because the first in order in the development of the arts ; 
but they were bidden to live in houses like the white man, 
and wear his dress, and bear his English names ; and these 
things did not fit them as yet. The chief of this Okom- 
mokamesit town was Onomog, of whom Gookin says, in 
his Cromwellian phraseology, that he was " a pious and 

1 This name, like so many other Indian names, is spelled in various ways. 
Besides the above, which is the more euphonious, though probably a 
later form, I find Ockoocangansett, Ogkanhquokamus, and Ogquomkong- 
quamesut. The early settlers had a pretty severe struggle with the ordi- 
nary spelling-book ; when it came to Indian names, they were apt to 
surrender at sight. 



10 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

discreet man, and the very soul, as it were, of that place." 
He died in 1674. 

But however earnestly the friends of the Indian were la- 
boring for his elevation in the scale of manhood, the work- 
ing of other inevitable forces that accompany and help 
to make social progress had begun, and the Indian was 
already passing away before the higher skill and the wider 
ambition of English training. The law of the survival of 
the fittest was to have a signal illustration. The leaders 
of the colonies had the best of intentions toward the na- 
tives; Eliot and his assistants were unremitting in their 
efforts to do them good in body and soul, — but not all the 
colonists were like the leaders. We are too apt to gen- 
eralize vaguely concerning these ancestors of ours, and 
because the Plymouth Pilgrims were men of a high stamp, 
as statesmen and as Christians, to assume that all who came 
to the colonies were of the same type. But history does 
not bear us out in this assumption. There were adven- 
turers among the immigrants. There were men who be- 
came mischief-makers in the new towns; there were those 
who had to be sent back, to get them out of the way. 
And among those who remained, and who gradually 
pushed their way westward, there were those who cared 
little for any one's rights but their own, and who had as 
much share in making the life of the towns as those who 
were of a better mind. These men could not be made to 
look on the Indian as anything but an incumbrance, to 
be gotten rid of. The feeling that " the only good Indian 
is a dead Indian " did not originate in the Western plains, 
if the phrase did ; and the broad meadows and produc- 
tive " planting fields " of the civilized Indians were too 
strong a temptation to the white man, who very soon 
contrived to possess them, and not always by the method 



FIRST WHITE SETTLERS. II 

of lawful purchase. There were those who protested 
against injustice; but even the brave and true men who 
have deserved only the gratitude of posterity were men 
who had been brought up on the Old Testament ideas 
rather than on those of the New. They believed that God 
had given this land to his saints, as he did Canaan of 
old, — and they believed that they were the saints ; and 
brave and true as they were, according to their age, they 
did not always — especially when smarting from the cruel- 
ties of Indian warfare — see in the clearest light the claims 
of the original proprietor. If, as we read the story, we 
are tempted to be harsh with them for this, we have sev- 
eral more modern stories, like that of the Black Hills, by 
which we may temper our righteous wrath. 

John Eliot's little colony on Okommokamesit Hill very 
soon found that it was to have English company. In the 
very same year (1654) that Eliot sent up his petition to 
the General Court " that they might be settled in this, 
among other places, unclaimed by the English," the 
first white man, one John How, is believed to have built 
his solitary cabin a little east of their planting-field. He 
came from Watertown, led by what motives it might be 
hard to say, but bent on separation from society. He 
was kind and friendly with his dusky neighbors, and 
from his superior knowledge came to be regarded by 
them as a sage and counsellor, and made a referee in 
their disputes. In Allen's "History of Northborough" 
an amusing illustration of this is cited. A dispute arose 
one day between two of the natives concerning the own- 
ership of a pumpkin, which had ripened in the field of one 
of the parties, while the vine that bore it had its roots in 
the other man's domain. Unable to solve so difficult a 
case of casuistry, they had recourse to Mr. How. He 



12 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

gravely heard the case, put on his wisest countenance, and 
ordered the disputed property to be placed before him. 
Then calling for a knife, he cut the pumpkin in two, 
and gave half to each, — to the unbounded admiration 
of the litigants. 

But this life of patriarchal simplicity was of short dura- 
tion. It was only two years after the arrival of How (in 
May, 1656) that thirteen men of Sudbury — a town then 
eighteen years old — petitioned the General Court for a 
grant of land lying about eight miles to the westward. 
They had lived a good while in Sudbury, they said ; their 
children were growing up, and needing land; their cattle 
were much increased ; and, in short, " wee are so straight- 
ened that wee cannot so Comfortably subsist as could be 
desired." There was no satisfying these pioneers in the 
matter of room. They felt crowded as soon as there were 
fifty families in a town. They could not find elbow-room 
on a farm of less than five hundred acres, even when they 
had in addition no end of meadow-land divided into lots 
for the common weal. Fifty years afterward the Haynes 
farm, lying to the west of Westborough, contained 1,686 
acres in one place, and 3,200 in another; and yet the heirs 
were claiming from the General Court a modest settlement 
of 5,000 acres more. The settlers all cried with a naive 
literalness, — 

" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
But the whole boundless continent is ours." 

As a consequence, the spread of new towns westward 
was rapid. Boston was incorporated in 1630, and on the 
same day Watertown, including at that time Waltham 
and Weston. Three years later Cambridge, including 
Brighton and Lexington, became a town under the name 
of Newtown. In 1635 Concord, containing Lincoln and 



FIRST WHITE SETTLERS. 1 3 

Acton, began its history; and Sudbury, including the fu- 
ture Wayland, followed in 1639. Thus nine years from 
the founding of Boston, and nineteen from the landing 
of the Pilgrims, brought the Englishmen to the borders 
of the " borough towns." 

The population followed river-courses and sought the 
neighborhood of ponds, on account of the meadow-lands, 
which bore their crops of grass without cultivation while 
the settlers were carrying on the slower work of subduing 
upland and woodland to the plough. So, climbing the 
hills to the westward, these restless spirits coveted the fair 
lands that sloped away toward the sunset, and sent in their 
petition in this year of grace 1656. They obtained their 
wish, too, to the extent of " a proportion of land six 
miles square, or otherwise in some convenient form equiv- 
alent thereto, at the discretion of the committee, in the 
place desired, — provided, that it hinder no former grant; 
that there be a town settled with twenty or more families 
within three years, so as an able ministry may be there 
maintained." 

Inasmuch, however, as this was found to interfere with 
the grant to the Indians through John Eliot two years be- 
fore, the Court ordered the planters to reserve six thousand 
acres for the red men, and suit themselves as well as they 
could with the remainder. This they were reluctant to do, 
and at first stoutly rebelled, and reserved only a part of 
the required area; but Eliot so successfully championed 
his wards that in 1658 the Court ordered "that the Indian 
plantation be enlarged northerly until they have their full 
6,000 acres; " and the English had to submit as best they 
might. 

The land thus granted to the settlers was not at once 
incorporated as a town, but became known as the Whip- 



14 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

suppenicke, or, more commonly, the Whipsufiferadge 
Plantation, from the Indian name of the hill which lies a 
mile or so south of Okommokamesit. But on the 31st of 
May, 1660, in answer to a petition of the Whipsufiferadge 
planters, the Court confirmed the former grant, and in- 
corporated the settlement as a town, to be called " Marl- 
borow." It included what has since become Southborough, 
most of Westborough and Northborough, and a part of 
Hudson. 



CHAPTER II. 

1660-1676. 

EARLIEST LANDHOLDERS WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE 
PRESENT TOWN. — "KING" PHILIP'S WAR. 

" I XD follow the history of Marlborough, which has al- 
ready been well written, is not in our purpose, 
except as it is interwoven with the first English occupa- 
tion of the lands which were afterward incorporated as 
Westborough. At the very beginning the settlers were 
attracted by its meadows and streams, toward the western 
part of their domain, even while they were trying to get 
possession of the Indian planting-field on the eastern hill. 
The thirteen families of 1656 had increased to thirty- 
eight in 1660, and a certain portion of the land, more 
or less centrally situated, was divided into " house-lotts," 
containing from fifteen to fifty acres; while the coveted 
meadows were apportioned among all the proprietors. 
Some of the names given to the meadows at that 
time have survived, — Stirrup Meadow and Cold Harbor 
Meadow in Northborough, along the streams which bear 
those names ; Middle Meadow, which still lies, in all its 
original charm, to the west of the Northborough road, 
along the beginnings of the Assabet, and reaches to the 
foot of the first hill west of Westborough village; and 
Cedar Swamp Meadow, which was very likely at that 
time an open stretch to the east of the village. There 
were also a Crane Meadow and a Chauncy Meadow, 
whose situation it is not difficult to conjecture. 



1 6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

The town business was begun, in September, 1660, in 
the usual manner of the time, by the order " That there 
bee a Rate made ffor Mr. William Brimsmead, Minister, 
to be collected of the Inhabitants and Proprietors of 
the town [for six months], at the rate of four pence per 
acre upon House Lotts, and three pence per pound upon 
Cattle." The next year a house was built for the minis- 
ter, and in 1662 a tax was imposed for building a meet- 
ing-house. But these orders were slow in taking effect. 
The people of the early settlements were chiefly eager 
to get their land subdued and their own houses built; 
being obliged by law to have a meeting-house and a 
minister at once, they conformed to the requirement by 
passing the proper votes at their first meetings, while they 
were often very slow in the fulfilment of them. More- 
over, in this particular case the proprietors had made 
some laws of their own, of undue severity, concerning the 
tenure of lands, requiring the owners to improve them 
within a very short time, and to pay heavy taxes, or 
else to forfeit their lands. Money was scarce, and the 
work of reclaiming the lands was arduous and slow; the 
result was an attempt to apply the law of forfeiture, 
which led to endless disagreement and litigation. It 
was not, therefore, till 1666 that a church was actually 
organized, over which Mr. Brimsmead, with some natural 
reluctance, was settled. 

But meantime the taking up of lands in the western 
part of the town was going on. The very earliest trace 
of individual ownership in this section is of unusual in- 
terest. It was in 1654, the same year that saw the first 
white man's cabin in Marlborough, that the Rev. Charles 
Chauncy, pastor of the church in Scituate, — formerly 
vicar of Ware, Hertfordshire, England, which parish he 



EARLIEST LANDHOLDERS. 1 7 

left on account of his Puritanism, — became the second 
president of Harvard College. The salary attached to the 
position was then exceedingly small; and in order that 
he might have the means of support, the General Court, 
poor in pounds sterling, but rich in lands, granted him 
several large tracts in the then unoccupied territory be- 
yond the settlements. Under such a grant he took up, in 
1659, tne y ear previous to the incorporation of Marl- 
borough, certain lands lying about the pond that bears 
his name to-day, which are thus minutely described in the 
surveyor's report to the General Court, Aug. 18, 1659: 

" Whereas John Stone and Andrew Belcher were appointed 
to lay out a farme for Mr. Charles Chauncy, President of Har- 
vard College, we have gone and looked on a place, and there is 
taken up a tract of land bounded in this manner : On the East 
a little swampe neare an Jndjan wigwam, a plajne runing to a 
great pond, and from thence to Assebeth River ; and this ljne 
is circular on the north side, the south ljne runing circular to 
the south side of a peece of meadow called Jacob's meadow, & 
so to continew till it reach to the sajd Assebeth River." 

The outlines of this original " Chauncy Farm " cannot 
be traced to-day from this description ; the Indian wig- 
wam has disappeared, but the " great pond " — so named 
by the Indians — and "Assebeth River" remain, and suffi- 
ciently indicate the situation of the tract. When, in the 
following year, Marlborough was incorporated, the grant 
then confirmed to the settlers included this farm of 
President Chauncy's; and that the resident proprietors 
might not be prevented from occupying all the land 
within the boundaries of the town, the Court ordered 
" that Mr. Chauncy be by them repaid all his charges 
expended in laying out his farm in that place; and he 
hath liberty to lay out the same in any lands not formerly 



1 8 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

granted by this Court." Thus while the president's owner- 
ship passed away after a year's occupation, the name re- 
mained. Subsequently a settlement grew up about the 
pond, and was called Chauncy, or Chauncy Village, — 
which name it bore until it was incorporated as West- 
borough. It is singular that a century later all knowledge 
of this origin of the name had been lost, so that Mr. Park- 
man, the first minister of Westborough, could write as 
follows in 1 767 : " This town was formerly a part of 
Marlborough, and called Chauncy. It is said that in early 
times one Mr. Chauncy was lost in one of the swamps 
here, and that from thence this part of the town had its 
name. Two ponds, a greater and a less, are also called 
Chauncy, — most probably from the same cause." The 
Rev. Joseph Allen, of Northborough, first called atten- 
tion, in 1826, to the true origin of the name, which 
subsequent investigations of the State records have abun- 
dantly established. 

In 1662 the General Court granted, on account of 
services rendered to the colony by his son John, then 
deceased, one hundred and fifty acres to William Hol- 
loway; and he seems to have taken up a section of 
land which was afterward known as the Holloway and 
Wheeler Farm, in the extreme north of Northborough. 
Land situated still farther westward had been in the 
possession of settlers before this time. In 1657 John 
and Josiah Haynes and a Mr. Treadway bought of Mrs. 
Parnell Nowell, widow of Increase Nowell, who was for 
many years Governor's Assistant in the Massachusetts 
Colony, 3,200 acres which lay in what is now Shrews- 
bury, but adjoining Northborough on the west. In 1664 
this land was surveyed and formally allotted to them. 
John Haynes also bought of Joseph Robin, an Indian 



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EARLIEST LANDHOLDERS. 1 9 

proprietor, 1,686 acres adjoining Hassanemisco, and per- 
haps including some territory now in Westborough, be- 
yond the house of B. A. Nourse, on the New England 
Village road. 

In 1671 the Marlborough young men began to sigh 
for more extended dominion, and sent up a petition to 
the General Court on the 31st of March, headed by 
Thomas King, and containing among others the names 
of Thomas Rice, John Fay, and Thomas and John Brig- 
ham, asking for a grant of lands situated forty or fifty 
miles south or southwest of Marlborough. As this was 
outside the jurisdiction of the Province of Massachusetts 
Bay, their request could not be granted, and they were 
advised to seek other lands on the Connecticut River. 
Foiled in this project, several of the number contented 
themselves with taking up farms in the west part of Marl- 
borough, which now or soon after acquired its popular 
title of " Chauncy." John Brigham, afterward known as 
'•• Dr." Brigham, son of the Thomas Brigham who came 
from England, obtained a grant of land situated north 
of the present village of Northborough and including 
the meadows about Howard Brook. This was in 1672, 
when he was twenty-eight years old. On this brook he 
built a saw-mill; and there he lived alone among the 
savages until their hostility drove him away. In the 
same year a grant was made to Samuel Goodenow and 
Thomas Brigham (brother of the John Brigham above 
mentioned), situated in the easterly part of North- 
borough. Samuel Goodenow's house stood near the 
spot where Stirrup Brook crosses the road from North- 
borough to Marlborough. Thomas Brigham lived on 
the Warren Brigham place, on the south road between 
Northborough and Marlborough. Another grant was 



20 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

made in 1672 to John Rediet, "west of Assebeth River, 
northwest of Chauncy Great Pond, bounded on the east 
by a spruce swamp," and another on " the Nepmuck 
road, that formerly led toward Coneticoat." The former 
of these grants, afterward the farm of Nathaniel Oake, 
who married John Rediet's daughter, belonged at a 
later period to the Rev. John Martyn and the Rev. Peter 
Whitney. 

In the south part of Chauncy, which is now West- 
borough, Thomas Rice is reported to have been the first 
settler. His house stood in the rear of the Christopher 
Whitney place. Just when he came is uncertain; but he 
was here in 1675, and his house was garrisoned during 
King Philip's war. He was born June 30, 1654, and was 
the son of Edmund Rice, who came from England. His 
first wife, Mary, died in Watertown May 13, 1677, and in 
168 1 he married his cousin, Anna Rice. He was twenty- 
one years old in 1675, an ^ it is probable that he married 
his first wife and built his rude dwelling at the foot of the 
hill but a very short time before that. Whether there 
were other settlers as early as this within the present limits 
of Westborough is uncertain. The " Fay Farm," in the 
western part, — a portion of the irregular outline of which 
has determined the shape of the town in that locality, — 
was certainly occupied very early, and seems to have been 
in the possession of some of the Brighams before it passed 
into the possession of John and Samuel Fay ; but as it 
had no garrison in 1675, there were probably at that time 
no dwellings on it. 

The year 1675 is memorable throughout this region. It 
saw the most serious clash that ever occurred between the 
settlers and the aborigines in New England, and the set- 
tlement here received a check that was almost fatal. The 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 21 

relations between the English and the Indians on Okom- 
mokamesit hill had never been severely strained up to 
this time. The whites had, indeed, always begrudged the 
Indians their allotment of six thousand acres, but they 
made no further attempts to encroach upon it, probably 
feeling sure that it would soon fall to them for lack of 
inhabitants. For while the English settlement was rap- 
idly growing, the Indian town was passing away. In 1674 
it contained only ten families and fifty persons. Major 
Gookin, in his queer, Puritanic English, and with the 
grotesque use of Scripture then prevalent, sums up the 
situation thus forcibly : " This town doth join so near to 
the English of Marlborough that it was spoken of by 
David in type, and our Lord Jesus Christ the antitype, 
' Under his shadow ye shall rejoice ; ' but the Indians 
here do not much rejoice under the Englishmen's 
shadow, who do so overtop them in their number of 
people, stocks of cattle, &c, that the Indians do not 
greatly flourish or delight in their shadow at present." 

This was inevitable. While the intelligence and skill 
of the Englishman made him an unequal competitor in 
the struggle for life, the Indian was not yet ready for 
any large success as a cultivator of the soil. He could 
only rise to that higher grade of life by slow degrees 
and with infinite patience of training on the part of his 
teachers. This the average settler was by no means 
prepared to give. The missionary work had to be 
done by a few enthusiasts, and they were unequal to 
the task. 

But a more serious collision than the natural one be- 
tween ignorance and skill was impending. While no con- 
flict was likely to arise with the Indians of the " praying 
towns," the rest of the aborigines were by no means 



22 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

subdued. They had thus far dealt kindly enough with 
the new-comers, raising no objection to selling them all 
the lands they desired, for a few petty objects of barter 
which their simple barbaric souls craved. But Dr. Ellis 
has recently called attention to the probability that they 
did this with the idea that it was only a joint owner- 
ship that the white man sought. They were not in the 
habit of using their lands for tillage, and did not see why 
the two races might not live in peace on the same soil. 
It was a surprise to them to find that English owner- 
ship meant their exclusion. In 1643 an d 1644 all but 
one of the sachems of eastern Massachusetts had formally 
submitted to the Government of the colony, so that all the 
territory from the Merrimac to Taunton River and west- 
ward to Brookfield was under colonial rule. But Philip of 
Mount Hope had never submitted. He alone saw that the 
sale of land to the English meant the driving out of his 
race. He and his Pokanokets had long been the terror 
of Plymouth Colony, and at length it was rumored that 
he had persuaded the Nipmucks to become his allies. If 
that were so, it was a serious matter for our pioneers. 
The new town of Marlborough was a frontier post con- 
taining not quite fifty families. Situated on " the Con- 
necticut road," it was the intermediate station between 
Boston and the settlements on the Connecticut River. 
Eastward were Sudbury and Concord, communicating, 
through Lexington and Watertown, with Boston. North- 
ward were only Lancaster and Groton. On the southeast 
the nearest town was Medfield. Southward was Mendon 
and the Indian towns of Hassanemisco and Maguncook. 
Westward the country stretched away unoccupied, save 
by Indians and wild beasts, to where the newly incorpo- 
rated town of Brookfield rose out of the wilderness. In 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 23 

case of attack, therefore, Marlborough was in a situation 
of extreme peril. 

In the summer of 1675 the Nipmuck Indians began to 
be seriously mistrusted. They had killed four or five 
people in Mendon, and alarmed the whole region. But 
the Government, still hoping to make alliance with them, 
sent a delegation, headed by Capt. Edward Hutchinson 
of Marlborough, to meet their chiefs at Quaboag (Brook- 
field) and hold parley. The end of that expedition every 
one knows, — a treacherous ambush, eight men killed, the 
town burned, Captain Hutchinson mortally wounded, and 
the expedition utterly routed. Captain Hutchinson's 
grave may be seen to-day in the old burying- ground 
in Marlborough. 

In October eight garrison houses were established in 
different parts of the town; these were surrounded by 
rough palisade work, and to them a few soldiers and a 
number of the neighboring inhabitants were assigned in 
case of attack. One of these was Thomas Rice's house. 
The town had already been made a military post and a 
depot of supplies; and in the struggle that ensued it 
became the headquarters of the army of defence. 

During the autumn Philip and his allies were engaged 
with the towns on the Connecticut, — Deerfield, Hadley, 
Northfield, and Springfield. In the February following 
there was trembling throughout all the region. On the 
10th the savages fell upon Lancaster, which then joined 
this town on the north, killing or capturing more than 
forty persons, among them brave Mrs. Rolandson and 
her children. They were checked in their career only 
by the arrival of a Marlborough company under Captain 
Wadsworth. Then passing southward, plundering as they 
went, hindered from attacking Marlborough only by its 



24 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

extra defences, on the 21st they fell upon Medfield, by a 
concerted movement setting fire to the houses before the 
break of day, and escaping with savage swiftness before 
the garrison was aroused. 

On this same day a special session of the General 
Court was held, when further measures were taken for 
defence in a war which was becoming atrocious, and 
began to threaten the annihilation of the settlements. 
Some of the orders issued that day have a special 
interest for us. For example, — 

" Major Gen" Denison is ordered to repair unto Marlborow, 
there to order and dispose the souldiers under their several 
Captaines, according to the order of the Generall Court, taking 
care that those who goe forth be able and fitt for the sajd 
march, & that the comissarys doe send along w th them the am- 
unitions & provisions ; & that the troopers & so many of the 
foote soldiers as can be in a readiness do march away on the 
second day of the week, so as they may be at Quaboag on 
the third day according to the agreement of the comissioners. 
The supernumerary souldiers are to be disposed for the garri- 
soning of those frontier towns, as the Major Gen" shall judge 
meet, excepting only such as for just reason or bodily infirmity 
he shall dismiss, special respect being had to the garrison at 
Marlborow." 

There were also the following " Instructions for Mr. 
James Brajden, appointed comissary for ye army: — 

" 1. First, you are to speed away to Marlborow & there to 
choose the ffittest house you can hnde to lodge the provisions 
and amunitions that is sent vnto you, and to cause it to be 
carefully secured & kept for the vse and service of the army as 
there shall be occasion. 

" 2. You are to declare to the cheefe comander on the place 
that it is the Court's pleasure that he affoord you a sufficient 
guard for the securing the magazine. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 2$ 

" 3. You are to take such assistance as may be necessary to 
performe the service comitted to you and to deliver forth what is 
comitted to you for the vse & service of the army & keeping 
carefull and particular accounts of all matters & yielding obedi- 
ence to such orders as you shall receive from the comander in 
cheife or comittee for the war, and give intelligence to the 
council or comittee for y e army of all matters requisit for the 
publick service respecting yo r place." 

A warrant was also directed to be " issued out to y e 
Comittee for y e army to send away y e provisions ordered 
to be at y e headquarters at Marlborow by the last day of 
the week. Also to send up some liquors and spice with a 
competency of canvass for a tent to shelter y e provisions 
and amunttion, as also the carpenters' tools, nayles, &c, 
to build a quarter at Quaboag or elsewhere; which was 
done." 

Troops were ordered to scour the country between 
Groton and Lancaster, and Marlborough and Medfield, 
where the Indians were prowling about in small com- 
panies. Suspicions began to arise, also, on both sides, 
against the praying Indians, — on the part of the whites, 
lest they were enemies in disguise, in secret communica- 
tion with Philip's army; on the part of the hostile Indians, 
lest they were aiding the settlers. So between upper and 
nether millstones the poor fellows, who had really done no 
harm whatever, were crushed out. Some Marlborough 
Indians having been found in the woods, near what is 
now New Braintree, with the horde which a few days 
later ravaged Lancaster, the few remaining warriors of 
the Okommokamesit town (in all but fifteen) were ar- 
rested by troops sent from Governor Leverett, and with 
their hands tied behind their backs, and bound neck to 
neck with a cart-rope, they were driven to Boston, and 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

thence taken to one of the islands in the harbor, where 
they passed a winter of severe suffering. 

By the middle of March the woods to the west of the 
town were swarming with the savages. On the 13th they 
burned Groton, and the whole region was filled with 
terror. But troops being sent out against them, they fled 
to the Connecticut River. Thereupon Marlborough, not 
yet fully acquainted with the subtlety of the foe, breathed 
freely again, and the soldiers dispersed to their farms. 
That was the very thing the wily fellows wanted, and 
suddenly, on the 26th of March, being Sunday, as the 
people were unsuspiciously worshipping in their meeting- 
house, the terrible cry rang out, " The Indians are upon 
us ! " The congregation in wild confusion rushed to the 
nearest garrison house, and fortunately all reached it in 
safety, save one : brave Deacon Newton, delaying in 
order to help an old and infirm woman, was hit by a 
ball in his elbow, which crippled his arm for life. But 
he had nobly exemplified the Christianity of which he 
had been hearing that day, and proved himself a deacon 
that " had used the office well, and purchased to himself 
a good degree." 

The people were safe, but it was the hour of doom for 
the town; for when they emerged from their retreat they 
found meeting-house, parsonage, and homes burned, their 
cattle killed, their orchards ruined. After sixteen years of 
life and growth the little frontier settlement came to an 
end. They might, perhaps, have rebuilt, in spite of this, 
and gone forward with a brave determination. But when, 
on the 17th of April following, Sudbury was devastated, 
and several of the Marlborough men, who were defend- 
ing it, — including Captain Brocklebank, commander of 
the garrison, — lost their lives, the pioneers gave up the 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 27 

unequal contest, left the lands they had reclaimed, and 
retired to the older towns. 

But this war, which ended with the death of Philip on 
the 1 2th of August following, however seriously it weak- 
ened the English, broke forever the power of the Indian 
tribes of Massachusetts. It was their last struggle for 
life and the possessions of their fathers. And however 
much we may deprecate their methods, which were simply 
those of savage warfare everywhere, we cannot severely 
blame them for rising up to strike one desperate blow for 
the right to live, and roam their ancient hunting-fields. 
Only cowards could tamely submit to dispossession and 
practical extinction. The Indians were not a specially 
noble race ; they were apt, in the long contest between 
French and English for the possession of the land, to 
fight on the side that promised the best pay, without 
much sense of right or much manifestation of manhood. 
They were savages. But Philip, quicker than the rest 
to see the meaning of the steady encroachment of the 
whites upon his domain, with more of the true fibre of a 
man in him than most of his contemporaries, deserves the 
credit that belongs to bravery and a true defence of the 
rights of freehold. We are not sorry he did not suc- 
ceed ; it was better that the higher race should hold the 
land; and we have nothing but horror for the treachery 
and cruelty of the warfare he waged : but we need not 
therefore forget that he fought and died, like many a 
nobler man, for the rights he defended, and the liberty 
and property which he saw vanishing from him, — not 
always by fair means And with him fell the last de- 
fender of the Indian inheritance. There were none left 
to strike a blow. Their hour had come, and they passed 
away like a morning cloud. We hear little more of the 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Massachusetts Indians. Those who at a later period strike 
terror into the people of this region, are of another stock, 
and, as a rule, from the Canadian tribes. 

In Marlborough there lingered for some time an un- 
equal contest with the little remnant of the settlement of 
praying Indians concerning their lands, which ended, as 
such contests always have in this country, in the posses- 
sion by the white man of the Indian's freehold. Then 
they faded away. There is from this time no relic what- 
ever of the Okommokamesit people. Indians have lived 
in this vicinity since ; the Rev. Joseph Allen, who wrote 
his sketch of Northborough in 1826, had been told by 
Capt. Timothy Brigham, then in his ninety-first year, of 
one David Munnanaw, whom Captain Brigham had seen 
in his boyhood, a survivor of Philip's war, who had taken 
part against the English. He lived in a wigwam on the 
shore of a pond near the Gates House, in Marlborough. 
One Abimelech David, supposed to be his son, with sev- 
eral daughters, all dissipated and thievish, lived afterward 
in a wretched hovel under an oak near the Warren Brig- 
ham place. But these were not Okommokamesit Indians, 
but stragglers from the Hassanemesits. The site of an 
old Indian burying-ground is still visible near this spot. 
The land around it has been ploughed and planted 
many times, but one little rectangular area has been 
kept sacredly free from the touch of ploughshare to this 
day, guarded by the tradition that it contains the dust of 
red men. 



CHAPTER III. 

1676-1711. 

PRELIMINARY MOVEMENTS TOWARD A NEW TOWN. — 
INDIAN TROUBLES DURING " QUEEN ANNE'S WAR." 

*" I ^HE eclipse of the new settlement occasioned by the 
war did not last long. The pioneer spirit was 
strong, and the longing for new lands could not be sup- 
pressed. In two years from its collapse Marlborough 
was on its feet again, and the town organization was re- 
sumed, with twenty-seven families as the nucleus. A tem- 
porary meeting-house, which sufficed them for the next 
eleven years, was raised on the site of the one burned by 
the Indians, and affairs went on as before. The western 
part of the settlement began to assume important propor- 
tions, and to have a strong vote and influence in town 
affairs. It was growing up chiefly around Chauncy Pond, 
and had already taken the name of Chauncy Village. 
When in 1688 Marlborough proposed to build a new meet- 
ing-house, the Chauncy people protested against setting it 
on the old spot, which was too far away for their con- 
venience ; and Chauncy was so much of a community that 
the following vote was carried in town meeting : — 

" That if the westerly part of the town shall see cause after- 
wards to build another meeting house, and find itself able to do 
so, and to maintain a minister, then the division to be made 
by a line at the cart-way at Stirrup Brook, where the Connecti- 
cut way now goeth, and to run a paralell line with the west line 
of the bounds of the town." 



30 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

This was essentially the line of subsequent division. 
The " Connecticut way " here referred to, built not long 
before Philip's war, ran from Marlborough town through 
the present territory of Northborough and Shrewsbury, 
crossing Lake Quinsigamond near its northern end, 
and leading to Brookfield and the Connecticut valley. 
It probably determined the subsequent course of the 
"country" (county) road of 1730, and corresponded, 
partially at least, to the present line of road from 
Marlborough to Worcester. The junction of this road 
with Stirrup Brook was near the Bartlett place, in the 
edge of Marlborough. 

It will be noticed that the vote above recorded has 
the expression, " where the Connecticut way no w goeth ; " 
this means that there was an earlier " Connecticoat road," 
which, however, was only a bridle-path, which made a 
southerly detour near the present Marlborough line, pass- 
ing, according to Allen, through the easterly part of 
Northborough, over Rock Hill, east of Great and Little 
Chauncy ponds, and so southwesterly through Grafton. It 
has been substantially followed in Lyman and Main streets. 
This was doubtless originally the path between the two 
Indian settlements of Okommokamesit and Hassanemisco ; 
when Brookfield began to rise in the wilderness, the newer 
way was opened. 

At this time, two hundred years ago, in spite of the 
growth of Chauncy, the territory to which Westborough 
is now restricted was still lonely. If at that time one 
had climbed the hill above the Whitney place, and could 
have found an outlook through the forest that then cov- 
ered it, he would have seen little but unbroken wilder- 
ness. The same rounded hills lay about him as to-day; 
the same wooded crests swept around to the north ; 



MOVEMENTS TOWARD A NEW TOWN. 31 

Chauncy Pond gleamed through the trees as fair as now ; 
the meadows were as green ; Wachusett and his dimly out- 
lined sentinels stood guard as proudly in the northwest: 
but the signs of human habitation were few. He might 
catch a glimpse of a number of houses that clustered 
around the great pond, — Thomas Rice's house, with its 
stockade, lay just at his feet. Perhaps, away to the left, 
hidden by the hills, were "the houses of the Fays," — 
alluded to in a plan of the territory made some years 
later. To the northeast rose the rude church of Marl- 
borough on the hill-top. And two miles or so away, a 
little west of north, he would have noticed two gently 
rounded knolls, partially wooded, — the one to the west 
sloping away to the green meadows that lined the As- 
sabet. On the slope of that little hill, forty years later, 
was to rise the little homely meeting-house of a new 
town, and close by it the homestead of its first pastor. 

The wilderness about him was not as safe to wander 
in as now. Five years before, Marlborough had paid a 
bounty for twenty-three wolves killed by the settlers. 
Rattlesnakes infested the western hills in such numbers 
that the town voted, in 1680, — 

" To raise thirteen men to go out to cil rattlesnakes, eight to 
Cold Harbor-ward, and so to the place they cal boston ; and five 
to Stony brook-ward [Southborough], to the places thereabout. 
John Brigham to cal out seven with him to the first, and Joseph 
Newton four with him to the latter; and they are to have two 
shillings apiece per day, paid out of a town rates." 

This " place they cal boston " is reputed to have been 
"Boston Hill," on the Shrewsbury line, beyond Hobomoc 
Pond ; and tradition adds — though not with equal proba- 
bility — that the name arose from the circumstance that 
at some previous time as many snakes had been killed 



32 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

on that hill as there were inhabitants in the young village 
of Boston. 

There is nothing to indicate that the severe political 
trials through which the colony was passing at this time 
were greatly felt in this vicinity. It seems as though the 
coast-towns felt the influence of the mother-country quite 
as much as the frontier towns were affected by the experi- 
ences of Boston. The chief foes of the interior were the 
wilderness and its savages. These men, being farmers, 
lacked the opportunities of the coast-towns for making 
money by manufactures and commerce. They were also 
saved from the burdens and losses of heavy taxes, prohibi- 
tive tariffs, and political intrigues. The life was plain and 
simple, too much occupied with unremitting toil to leave 
time for great concern with the affairs of State. The 
journey to Boston, which could be made only on horse- 
back, was seldom undertaken, and the lads from this 
frontier would have looked on with utter amazement at 
the fine sights and gay attire of the provincial city. 
Nor were their fathers more disturbed at the endeavors 
of royalists to import Church of England worship, or 
at the appearance of new and strange forms of belief 
and practice that sprang up in the coast-towns; for they 
were too far away to know much about them. Even the 
struggle with the English Government and the loss of 
the charter of the colony in 1684 seem to have scarcely 
disturbed the quiet of the life here, which was wholly 
turned to the effort required to regain the losses of the 
Indian war. 

Thus the years went by, in patient struggle with the 
wilderness, for a quarter of a century from the time of the 
return. But at length Chauncy has attained a growth 
which makes it long for rights and privileges of its own. 



MOVEMENTS TOWARD A NEW TOWN. 33 

There are more fair lands to the west waiting for occu- 
pancy, if only there were a meeting-house in the vicinity 
and enough of the privileges of a town to attract new 
settlers. Accordingly, the year 1702 saw the birth of a 
definite effort to found a new town. Chauncy had not 
forgotten the vote of 1688, above referred to, and the peti- 
tion which was sent up to the General Court was based 
upon it. This, which is called, for convenience, Henry 
Kerly's petition, was as follows : — 

"To her Maj ties Hon bIe Councill &c. Humbly Sheweth: — 
That whereas the town of Marlborough, in their first settlement 
of their Plantacion, seated their town towards the westerly end 
of said Plantacion, and since hath laid out a considerable por- 
tion of the land on the westerly part into Lotts : the inhabitants 
considering that much of their land, both upland and meadow, 
would be very Proper and Convenient for settling upon, only 
remote from any meeting, — 

" Therefore, for Jncouragement of people to settle there, the 
s d Town of Marlborough on the 21st day of May, 1688, did 
grant Liberty to build a Meeting House, and forthwith staked 
out bounds there for a village to be settled ; through which 
Jncouragement a considerable number of families are already 
settled thereon, who find a difficulty and inconveniency in the 
want of a Meeting House, and being so remote from any, and 
Likewise Considering y* there are several farms and Vacant 
Lands in the Country adjacent to it sufficient to make a 
village, — 

" Therefore we your Humble Petitioners do pray for an Jn- 
largement; That from the Westerly bounds of Marlborough 
Town the said new settlement which is called Chauncy, may 
be extended to Consigamack [Quinsigamond] Pond, and to a 
parallel line to Marlborough west line while it comes to Has- 
sanessit, the Indian Plantation, and so to run the full breadth 
of five miles until it comes to Hassanessitt, and so cutting upon 
that Plantation ; also a mile in breadth on the southerly side 
from Sudbury River to the Indian bounds before mentioned ; 

3 



34 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

we desiring all bounds of land to stand as they are already 
settled, and the vacant lands to be for the benefit of the place, 
and the farms to do duty and take privelege amongst us ; & 
y r Humble Petitioners shall forever pray &c. 
{Signed by) 

Henry Kerly Richard Barnes 

Nathan Brigham Samuel Brigham 

Jacob Rice John Mainerd Jr. 

Joseph Rice Anna Ward 

Increase Ward James Rice 

Josiah Hawes Tho s . Brigham 

Sam 1 : Goodnow Eliezer How 

Edmund Rice David Mainerd 

Thomas ffurbush Joseph Witherby 

Sam 1 : ffurbush Isaac Thomlin 

John ffay Samuel ffay 
John Brigham. 

This tract included not only the present territory of 
Westborough and Northborough, but the whole of Shrews- 
bury and the major part of Boylston, together with a wide 
strip from the northern section of Grafton. It was not all 
unclaimed land, by any means. More than five thousand 
acres beyond the present western line had come into 
English hands. Of this the greater part was owned by the 
Haynes family, already mentioned, and at the very time 
of Henry Kerly's petition was in litigation before the 
General Court. The original Haynes brothers, who pur- 
chased the thirty-two hundred acres of Mrs. Nowell in 
1657, having died, the property was divided among the 
heirs. John and Peter, sons of John, senior, petitioned 
the Court for the confirmation to them of additional land, 
which they claimed to have purchased of the Indians. 
John Brigham, who had married the daughter of Josiah 
Haynes, put in a counter petition, showing by a plan of 



MOVEMENTS TOWARD A NEW TOWN. 35 

the territory that his access to certain meadow-lands 
would be cut off if the petition of the other heirs was 
granted. It may have been the unsettled state of these 
claims which prevented the granting of the Kerly peti- 
tion. At any rate, it was not granted, and the " village " 
of Chauncy remained as it had been, a part of the town 
of Marlborough, for fifteen years longer. 

One farther step was taken, meantime, by the grant, on 
the 13th of March, 1709, from the Proprietors of Marl- 
borough, of fifty acres of land " for the benefit of the 
Ministry in the westerly end of Marlborough, called 
Chauncy village." It consisted of forty acres of upland 
and swamp west of Chauncy Pond, and ten acres of 
meadow "at the west end of Great Middle Meadow, near 
Hobamoka pond." This remained a part of the " minis- 
terial farm " until Westborough and Northborough were 
divided, and was not sold until 1784. 

Shortly after the Kerly petition the perils of life in the 
wilderness received a new illustration. During the twenty- 
five years that had gone by since the war with Philip, 
the settlers had been unmolested. The heroes of that 
war had become veterans, and the children had grown 
up and were cultivating farms, unterrified by the savage 
war-whoop. Life was hard enough without that, to be 
sure; one wonders at the irrepressible desire that these 
men had to maintain their struggle with the wilderness, 
and the utter absence of any wish to fall back upon the 
older towns, or try the comparative luxury of life on the 
coast. But the pioneer fever was upon them strongly, and 
privation and danger seemed only to stimulate their hardy 
spirits. Now, however, came new troubles. Though the 
Massachusetts Indians had disappeared, there were forces 
at work in the far North creating deep hostility in the 



$6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Indian tribes of those regions ; and at about this period 
bands of them, instigated by the French, began to come 
southward, and to prowl about these settlements. It was 
an incident in the history of what is known as " Queen 
Anne's war," which was itself but an incident in the long 
struggle between England and France for the possession 
of the New World. The French in Canada made great 
use of the Indians, — as, for that matter, the English did 
also, as they found opportunity; and it added untold hor- 
rors to the history of the struggle. After the disastrous 
failure of the attack of the New England forces on Que- 
bec in 1690, there was an outbreak of hostility from that 
quarter which made the New England settlers realize 
for the first time what they afterward became so wearily 
familiar with, — the terrors of a " French and Indian war." 
Queen Anne's war broke out in 1702 ; and two years 
later began that series of Indian raids which is so mem- 
orable in the annals of the time, when Deerfield and 
Haverhill were devastated "with a cold-blooded barbarity 
which has never ceased to make men shudder. In July, 
1704, a body of six or seven hundred French and In- 
dians, foiled in an attempt to destroy Northampton, 
came eastward and attacked Lancaster. Capt. Thomas 
Howe, of Marlborough, gathering what force he could, 
marched to the relief of his neighbors ; but the English 
were defeated and driven into the garrison, and the town 
was desolated. 

On the 8th of August following, Chauncy had its share 
in the common terror. In the hot summer day some men 
and boys were at work in the field just this side of the 
Whitney place, spreading flax. The hill rose above them 
to the south, covered then with a thick growth of trees. 
Suddenly, before any one of them could turn himself 



INDIAN TROUBLES. 37 

or know what had happened, a party of eight or ten In- 
dians had rushed down from the hill and seized the boys. 
Little Nahor Rice, only five years old, was summarily 
disposed of in true Indian fashion, by having his brains 
dashed out on a rock; four others, from seven to ten 
years old, were " captivated," as the quaint record has it, 
and carried off to the woods, while the rest of the party 
escaped in panic to the garrison-house of Thomas Rice, 
which was close by. Of the captives, Asher, aged ten, 
and Adonijah, aged eight, were Thomas Rice's sons ; the 
others, Silas and Timothy, nine and seven years old, as 
well as Nahor, who was killed, were sons of Edmund 
Rice, a second cousin of Thomas, who lived near what 
has since been called Willow Park. The little boy Nahor 
is said to have been the first English person buried 
within the limits of the present town. 

It was a sad day for these pioneers. Five tiny lads gone 
at a stroke, one to cruel death, the others to a captivity 
more dreaded than death ! There were grim faces around 
the firesides that night as the men thought and plotted for 
rescue and vengeance ; and the mothers, poor things, un- 
likely to get much soothing from the stern-browed men, 
and accustomed to regard all such calamity, in the Puri- 
tanic fashion, as the sign of God's ill-will to them, had 
many a long day of silent pain. The boys were taken to 
Canada, to wait for ransom, or to be trained in the Indian 
life and warfare. Measures were taken to rescue them, but 
without much fruit. Four years later, through the efforts 
of Colonel Lydius, of Albany, Asher was redeemed by his 
father, and returned home. He was, however, so broken 
by the shock he had received at the time of his seizure 
that he never fully recovered from it. He lived at home 
until he married, when he removed to Spencer. He was 



38 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

a very eccentric man, " a little teched," as the phrase used 
to be. He spent a great deal of effort in making a grist- 
mill on a new plan, so that the upper stone should be 
fixed, while the lower one revolved. This, he insisted, was 
the only natural way, for in the human mouth, which was 
evidently the original corn-mill, it was the lower jaw that 
did the work. But men laughed quietly at his oddities, for 
they pitied him. Some remains of the Indian habits which 
he had gained in his four years life in a wigwam always 
clung to him. And the fear of the red-men never left him. 
Daily he dreaded the possibility of their approach; and 
long after all danger had passed away, he built stockades, 
and tried to be prepared in case of an attack. He had a 
son Asher, born in 1734, who died in Spencer in 1823, in 
his ninetieth year; and he has, or had a few years ago, 
descendants still living there. 

Adonijah, his younger brother, was never redeemed, but 
grew up in Canada, though he did not remain all his life 
among the Indians. He became sufficiently one of them, 
however, to bear among them the name of Asaundugoo- 
ton. Afterward he married twice, — first a Frenchwoman, 
and the second time a Dutchwoman, — and became the 
owner of a good farm near Montreal, on the north side 
of the St. Lawrence. 

The two sons of Edmund Rice, Silas and Timothy, grew 
up in the Indian wigwams, lost their mother-tongue, and 
became essentially savages. Of Silas we know nothing, 
except that he married an Indian squaw and was called 
Tookanowras. But Timothy, the seven-year-old boy, had 
qualities of his own, inherited from a sturdy generation, 
which could not be consigned to oblivion even in an 
Indian wigwam, or under the rather discouraging name 
of Oughtzorongoughton. He was adopted in the place 



4 



INDIAN TROUBLES. 39 

of his own son, who had died, by a chief of the Cana- 
wagas, a tribe of the Iroquois converted by the French 
Jesuit missionaries, and settled near Montreal; and thus 
had a better opportunity than often fell to the lot of a 
captive. The Rev. Ebenezer Parkman wrote in 1 769, after 
some acquaintance with the persons and the facts : — 

"Timothy had much recommended himself to the Indians by 
his superior talents, his penetration, courage, strength, and war- 
like spirit, for which he was much celebrated, — as was evident 
4'to me from conversation with the late Sachem Kendrick and 
Mr. Kellog when they were in Massachusetts. He himself, 
in process of time, came to see us. By the interposition of 
Colonel Lydius and the captive Tarbell, who was carried away 
from Groton, a letter was sent me, bearing date July 23, 1740, 
certifying that if one of their brethren would go up to Albany, 
and be there at a time specified, they would meet him there, and 
one of them at least would come hither to visit his friends in 
New England. The chief abovesaid came, and the said Mr. 
Tarbell with him, as interpreter and companion. They arrived 
here September 15th. They viewed the house where Mr. Rice 
dwelt, and the place from which the children were captivated, of 
both which he retained a clear remembrance, as he did likewise 
of several elderly people then living, though he had forgot our 
language. [It was thirty-six years after the capture.] His 
Excellency Governor Belcher sent for them, who accordingly 
waited on him at Boston. They also visited Tarbell's relatives 
at Groton ; then returned to us on their way back to Albany 
and Canada. Colonel Lydius, when at Boston not long since, 
said this Rice was the chief who made the speech to General 
Gage which we had in our public prints, in behalf of the Cana- 
wagas, soon after the reduction of Montreal." 

The Rev. Peter Whitney adds that " When the old In- 
dian sachem Ountassogo, chief of the Canawagas, at the 
conference with Governor Belcher at Deerfield, made a 
visit to Boston, he stopped a while in Westborough ; 
and Asher Rice saw him, and knew him to be one of 



40 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the Indians who rushed down the hill when he was taken 
by them." 

Another Indian raid occurred three years later, on the 
1 8th of August, 1707, on the farm of Samuel Goodnow, 
who had settled on Stirrup Brook, on the north road from 
Northborough to Marlborough. Mary Goodnow, his 
daughter, and Mrs. Mary Fay, wife of Gershom Fay, 
whose farm was near by, were gathering herbs in a field, 
when twenty-four Indian warriors rushed from the woods. 
Mrs. Fay ran for the house of Mr. Goodnow, which was 
a garrison-house, and reached it safely. Mary Goodnow, 
being lame, was overtaken and made captive. The neigh- 
borhood was at once aroused, and so vigorous an attack 
was made that the Indians were quickly routed, and ran, 
leaving their twenty-four packs behind them. Enraged, 
however, by their defeat, and finding that the girl's lame- 
ness prevented her rapid flight with them, they killed 
and scalped her a few rods beyond Stirrup Brook. Her 
body was found by her friends shortly afterward, and 
buried where it fell. Mrs. Fay, on reaching the garrison- 
house, had found only one man there ; but by their heroic 
exertions, she loading and he firing, they kept the Indians 
at bay until help arrived. 

On account of these recurring dangers the town of 
Marlborough in 171 1 increased the number of garrison- 
houses to twenty-six, assigning to each a certain number 
of families in the vicinity, who were, in case of danger, 
to take refuge in them and defend them. Among these 
were the houses of Thomas and Edmund Rice, both 
within the limits of the present Westborough. Those of 
Samuel Goodnow and Thomas Brigham, which were also 
among those garrisoned, were within the precincts of the 
original town. 



INDIAN TROUBLES. 4 1 

The spot where Nahor Rice was killed is still known 
approximately, and the grave of Mary Goodnow in 
Northborough definitely. It would help to preserve the 
early memorials of New England history if these spots 
were marked by a rude bowlder with the name cut 
in deep characters, and held sacred thereafter against 
the encroachments of the too irreverent enterprise of 
modern times. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1711-1723. 

INCORPORATION, AND BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 

IN 1 7 13 the peace of Utrecht put a temporary check on 
Indian depredations. The loss of the colonies, from 
1675 to 1 7 1 3> is estimated at nearly six thousand men; 
and yet they were by no means crippled. Still less was 
the brave pioneer spirit broken. No sooner was the im- 
mediate danger over than their enterprise broke forth 
again in the effort to establish new towns and push civili- 
zation westward ; and the years immediately following the 
establishment of peace were marked by an unusual num- 
ber of applications for incorporation. Among these was 
one from certain inhabitants of Marlborough, signed by 
Isaac Amsden and sixty-six others, which resulted soon 
after in the incorporation of Westborough. 

This petition was probably presented to the General 
Court at the session of 1716. The document itself is lost; 
but an undated plan of the territory, which probably ac- 
companied it, is in the archives at the State House. The 
petition asked for the erection of a new town out of 
the western part of Marlborough, and including some 
eighteen hundred acres west of .Marlborough, afterward 
assigned to Shrewsbury. It immediately drew out a 
counter petition from John Brigham and thirty others, 
received in Court Nov. 23, 1716, praying for " ungranted 



INCORPORATION. 43 

lands between Lancaster, Sutton, Marlborough, Worcester, 
Hassanamisco, and Bridgham's farm, ... to be erected 
into a town." This was the first movement toward the 
incorporation of Shrewsbury. As these two petitions in- 
terfered with each other, it was ordered that Mr. Brigham 
and his fellow-petitioners should prepare a plan of the 
land desired, and that the Marlborough petition should 
be continued to the next session, in order that it might 
be determined more clearly what measures would best 
promote the public welfare. 

In the May following, John Brigham had his plan ready ; 
and Samuel Thaxter, John Chandler, and Jonathan Rem- 
ington, Esq., were appointed a committee of the General 
Court "to view the land and inquire into the circumstances 
of the petitioners," etc., and to see "whether, if the petition 
of the Inhabitants of Marlborough for a Part of the said 
land be granted, the Remainder of the said tract will 
not be thereby disadvantaged for a Township." This was 
quite a necessary inquiry, for the land-seekers of that time 
had a shrewd eye to their own interests. The committee 
reported June 19, favoring the grant for Shrewsbury, — 

" provided the Court allow to the Westerly part of Marlborough 
a line to be continued from the Westerly bounds of Lieut. Rice's 
farm, until it meets with Fay's farm, and then to bound by said 
Fay's farm according to the lines thereof, until it meet with 
Sutton line on the Southward ; and from the Northwest corner 
of said Rice's land to run upon a strait line to a heap of 
stones, called Warner's corner, which is the most easterly corner 
of Haynes' farm, by the country road ; and including therein 
the land which the report of Samuel Thaxter, Esq., & dated 
June 19, proposes should be laid to them, and present it to 
this Court for allowanc'e." 

In the House of Representatives, Oct. 31, 1717, the 

petition was read, — 



44 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

" Shewing that a confiderable Number of the Inhabitants of the 
said Town have settled themselves in the Westerly Part of said 
Town, where they are at a considerable distance from the Place 
of publick Worship, and ill accommodated to attend it in the said 
Place, and therefore Praying that the said Westerly Part may be 
fett off as a Precinct or Township, and certain lands lying near 
them taken into the said Precinct or Township." 

It was — 

" Ordered that the Petitioners prepare a Plat, taken by an able 
Surveyor, of the Land which they desire, and [which] the town of 
Marlborough agree should be sett off & made a feparate Town- 
ship, including therein the Land which the report of Samuel 
Thaxter, Esq., &c, Dated June 19, proposes should be laid 
to them, and present it to this Court for Allowance." 

A drawing of the territory desired had already been 
presented to the Court with the petition of Isaac Amsden ; 
but it was not drawn with exactness, and it claimed some 
eighteen hundred acres more than the committee recom- 
mended the Court to grant. A new survey was made by 
William Ward, correcting the boundaries and conforming 
to the committee's report, a copy of which is here shown. 
This plan represents the exact area originally incorporated. 
The record of incorporation is as follows : — 

Monday, Nov. 18, 1717. 
A plat of the Westerly Part of Marlborough, called Chauncy, 
presented by the Committee appointed by the General Court to 
view & make Report of the said Land unto the said Court. 

In the House of Represent' 05 , Nov. 15, Resolved that the 
Tract of Land contained and described in this Plat be erected 
into a Township, & called by the Name of Westborough. The 
Inhabitants to have and enjoy all Powers, Privileges, & Immu- 
nities whatsoever, as other towns have and do enjoy, and that 
the ungranted Lands lying within the same (Containing about 
Three Thousand Acres), be granted to the said Inhabitants, 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 45 

They paying for the same as the Committee, appointed by this 
Court this session for settling the Lands of the new Township 
that is contiguous [Shrewsbury], shall order. And that out of 
the said lands there be reserved a suitable and convenient Lott 
for the first settled Minister, Which Lott the said Committee 
shall sett out. 

Sent up for Concurrence. Read and Concurred. Con- 
sented to, Sam ll Shute. 

This was the hundredth town in Massachusetts. 

The committee to whom was referred the matter of 
compensation, consisting of Samuel Thaxter, Jonathan 
Remington, and Francis Fulham, reported, Jan. 20, 17 19, 
"that the inhabitants of Westboro pay for the land granted 
by the Court, besides 100 acres laid out for a minister, 
amounting, besides farms, to 2207 a., £80 lawful money. 
To be paid, in 4 equal payments, on or before the first 
day of June, 1723." 

So from this time there is a Westborough in fact as well 
as in prospect, and the days of "Chauncy" are numbered. 
No more slow toiling over the plain and up the hill to the 
Marlborough meeting-house on Sundays and town-meeting 
days. The settlers of this area would have a rallying 
place of their own, and employ their own preacher and 
levy their own taxes. They were not, indeed, looking for- 
ward, after the fashion of the modern town in the West, 
to a speedy arrival of long trains of immigrants, or to 
the erection of sumptuous court-houses and seven-storied 
hotels, or to an immediate rise in the value of corner lots 
that would make the original holders of land wealthy 
while they slept. The conditions of pioneering then and 
now had little in common. The buildings they were to 
raise were of the homeliest; the growth of the town would 
be very slow, — for more than thirty years the number of 



46 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

families would not exceed one hundred ; nevertheless, with 
the means at their disposal and the modest expectations 
they cherished, they had made a good step forward, and 
felt the thrill of new hopes and freshened ambitions. 

According to a statement by the Rev. Ebenezer Park- 
man, the first minister of Westborough, 1 " the first families 
of Westboro were twenty-seven; all the first settlers were 
about forty." On the fly-leaf of his Church-records he has 
recorded the names of the first inhabitants as follows : — 

Thomas Rice. Thomas Newton. 

Charles Rice. Josiah Newton. 

John Fay. Hezekiah Howe. 

Samuel Fay. Daniel Warrin. 

Thomas Forbush. Increase Ward. 

David Maynard. Benjamin Townsend. 

Edmund Rice. Nathaniel Oakes. 

David Brigham. Samuel Goodnow. 

Capt. Joseph Byles. Gershom Fay. 

James Bradish. Simeon Howard. 

John Pratt. Adam Holloway. 

John Pratt, Jr. , Thomas Ward. 

Joseph Wheeler. 
Young Men. — John Maynard, James Maynard, Aaron For- 
bush, Jacob Amsden, Eleazer Beaman, and Jotham Brigham. 

This list gives but twenty-five heads of families ; the re- 
maining two were perhaps Isaac Tomblin and James Eager. 

It would be very interesting to determine the relative 
situation of each of these first families of Westborough ; 
but it can be done only partially. 2 Thomas Rice, with 
his son Charles, were, as we have seen, a little south- 
west of the village. John Fay and his brother Samuel 
were on the " Fay farm," — the latter on the Miletus 
Henry place, the former on the Austin Howe place. The 

1 Mass. Hist. Soc Rec, ist series, vol. x. 2 See Appendix. 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 47 

exact spot where Thomas Forbush settled, I am unable 
to determine ; his brother Jonathan, in whose family the 
name became changed to Forbes, is not mentioned in this 
list of first settlers, but was here very early, joining the 
Church in 1727; he lived at first near Stirrup Brook. 
David Maynard's farm was somewhere near the line of 
the present Northborough Road ; and John Maynard, his 
nephew, who married in 17 19, settled down near the 
first meeting-house. Edmund Rice was also near the old 
meeting-house. David Brigham held the farm which now 
constitutes the State hospital grounds, and five hundred 
acres besides; his house stood about sixty rods east of 
the hospital buildings. Capt. Joseph Byles was south 
of Chauncy Pond. John Pratt was assigned to Thomas 
Rice's garrison, and lived on the " old mill road." 
Thomas Newton is reputed to have held the Josiah W. 
Blake farm. Daniel Warren was on the eastern border 
of " the Plain," and his farm included the land of the late 
George Harrington, Seleucus Warren, S. A. Harrington, 
and perhaps more. Increase Ward was in Northborough, 
on the river, where he had a saw-mill. Benjamin Towns- 
end was near Chauncy Pond. Nathaniel Oakes lived in 
Northborough, on the farm afterward owned by John 
Martyn and Peter Whitney. Samuel Goodnow lived just 
west of Stirrup Brook, on the road to Marlborough. 
Gershom Fay was near by. Simeon Howard was near 
Northborough village. (Allen says "near the Morse house, 
on land of Mr. Asa Fay.") Adam Holloway was in the 
north part of Northborough. Thomas Ward was on the 
Asaph Rice place ; Isaac Tomblin on the farm of Dea. 
Isaac Davis ; Joseph Wheeler on the southern declivity 
of Ball's Hill. 

The vicinity of Chauncy Pond was both the natural 



48 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

centre of the area of the new town, and also the most 
thickly settled portion. Here, for the first thirty years of 
its history, is laid the scene of chief interest. Nearly a 
hundred years later, when the great lines of stages made 
the turnpike busy, and Wessonville Tavern became the 
focus of activity, this same old centre seemed about to 
regain its prominence. But the necessity that the public 
buildings should be in the most convenient place for all 
the inhabitants, and later the construction of the railroad, 
have determined the permanent situation of the village 
where it is to-day. Standing on the pleasant slopes to 
the westward of the old meeting-house, one feels that 
something of picturesqueness and beauty has been given 
up in the change. But remembering the advantages to 
a town of having one village at its natural centre instead 
of half a dozen scattered over its territory, producing 
divided interests and jealousies, one is more easily recon- 
ciled to the exchange of picturesqueness for utility, and 
of the ancient Chauncy for the modern Westborough. 

A month after the incorporation of the town, the first 
warrant was issued for a town-meeting, which was held on 
the 15th of January, 171 8. The quaint record is herewith 
literally transcribed : — 

" firstly, Refolved to Build a meetting house forth with. 

" 2ly. Voted, the meeting house to Be fourty foot Long, and 
thirty foot wid, and Eighteen foot Betwen Joints. 

"3ly. Voted to Choufe a Committee to proced to Getting 
timber as may Be nefefsary, forth with to Be procured. 

" 4.1y. John Pratt, Sener, Thomas Newton, and Daniel Warrin 
wear chofen a Committee for the work a Bove fd, and to Deter- 
mine the wages for men whom thay see meet to Imploy. 

" Sly. Voted to Chufe Committee to wait on the Re vd Mr. 
Elmer, and to treat to Continue to Be our minifter, and to pro- 
ceed for his Comfortable Subfestenc, As thay Shal See meet. 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 49 

*' 61y. Isaac Tomblin, Thomas Newton, John fay, are Choufen 
a Commete for the work of the fifth uote. 

" 7ly. John fay was Chosen Town Clark. 

" 81y. Thomas Rice, Sener, Chose the first Seelect man ; John 
fay and Semeion Hayward, Sener, chosen Seelectmen ; lastly, 
Dauied manayard chosen Constable." 

The first action of the town was thus mainly in the 
interest of its ecclesiastical institutions. It illustrates the 
uniform practice of the time. It was among the early 
laws of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, 
approved by King William in 1692, that every town should 
be constantly provided with " an able, learned, and ortho- 
dox minister, or ministers, of good conversation, to dis- 
pense the word of God to them." This merely expressed 
the profound conviction of the leaders in the colony that 
religion was the corner-stone of civil life. But they went 
farther than that. Sixty years before the passage of the 
law just cited, the General Court had ordered that " no man 
shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but 
such as are members of some of the Churches within the 
limits of the same." It was not only religion, but a Church, 
on which the State was to be built ; and not only a Church, 
but a particular form of Church, — that form, namely, which 
these reformers had in vain endeavored to be allowed to 
maintain in their English homes. This looks to us narrow ; 
and having seen what this mingling of Church and State 
led to at a later day, we are tempted to be unduly severe 
on the founders of the nation for their illiberal ideas. But 
it was a natural action under the circumstances. They 
had come to see, in their English homes, that a great 
danger to the kingdom of God lay in the organized and 
complicated system of order and worship which the Eng- 
lish Church, forgetting how recently it had itself sprung 

4 



50 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

forth as a protest against the same tyranny in the 
Church of Rome, had sought to impose upon all reli- 
gious life within its borders. Our fathers had sacrificed 
the comforts of civilization for a home in the wilderness 
in order that they might be free, themselves and their de- 
scendants, from this tyranny of a system. They felt that 
in order to keep the danger from encroaching, when it 
was least expected, they must bar it out by the firm es- 
tablishment of the simpler forms which they believed to 
spring from the New Testament. They did not see that in 
making conformity to this order a condition of participa- 
tion in the affairs of State they were only changing the 
difficulty, not relieving it. They had not yet conceived the 
modern idea of religious freedom; they could not, — such 
conceptions are the growth of ages. So for a long time 
membership in the Congregational Churches was the con- 
dition of civil influence; until, as was inevitable, men of 
political ambition became unscrupulous as to the means 
they used to get membership in the Churches, in order 
that they might vote and hold office. But we should be 
unjust to charge these consequences of their action upon 
the men whose only aim was freedom from those abuses 
of religious authority of which they had had experience. 
Their struggles for liberty have given us our best privi- 
leges of to-day; their mistakes were corrected by the 
course of events as time went on. 

The second town-meeting was held on the third day of 
February, Thomas Forbush moderator, at which a com- 
mittee was appointed — 

"to Go on with the work of the metting house untill it Be Raised, 
Covered, and closed ; viz., Namly : Thomas Rice, John Pratt, 
Thomas Newton, Daniel Warrin, William Holloway, chosen to 
Do the work Be for mentioned. Voted to Raise eighty Pounds in 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 5 1 

work, Boards, and shingles, and claboards. Voted y* the above 
sd. Committee shall have three Shilings per Day untill they have 
worked out their perticular Reats ; and allso y l other Laboring 
men shall have 2 J -6 flf -per Day ; also a man with his team of four 
oxen, six shilings." 

February 14th, Thomas Rice, Samuel Forbush, John 
Fay, Thomas Newton, and James Bradish were appointed 
a committee "to wait upon the General Cort's Committee 
to Sett out the minister's Lot." The proprietors of Marl- 
borough had already, as we have seen, on the 13th of 
March, 1710, granted a portion of land "for the benefit 
of the Ministry in the westerly end of Marlborough, called 
Chauncy Village." The committee appointed at this time 
seems to have made, in conjunction with the committee 
of the Legislature, an additional assignment of one hun- 
dred acres, in a narrow strip running across the town 
from east to west. This hundred acres was assigned to 
Mr. Daniel Elmer, to whom reference is made in the fifth 
article of the first town-meeting, and who was the first 
minister of Westborough, though never ecclesiastically 
settled. Mr. Tarkman makes the following record of his 
connection with the town : — 

" Mr. Daniel Elmer, a candidate for the ministry from Con- 
necticut River, preached here several years, and received a call 
from the people ; but there arose dissension, and though he built 
upon the farm which was given for the first settled minister, and 
dwelt upon it, yet by the advice of an ecclesiastical council he 
desisted from preaching, and a quitclaim being given him [by 
Mr. Parkman, dated Oct. 28, 1724] of the farm, he sold it, and with 
his family removed to Springfield in 1724. He was afterwards 
settled at Cohanzy, in the Jerseys, and, I suppose, died there." 

The history of the connection of Mr. Elmer with the 
town is very meagre. There is nothing between the vote 



52 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

of the town January 15, appointing a committee to confer 
with him, and make arrangements for his comfortable 
support, and this sketch by Mr. Parkman, unless it be a 
hint in the Diary of Judge Sewall, who, passing through 
here on his way from Springfield to Boston, dining at 
Leicester, Wednesday, July 25, 1718, and riding from there 
to Marlborough in the afternoon, wrote in his Journal the 
next day, " Have a Fast at Westborough this day, in order 
to settle a Minister." 

It is not unlikely that the " dissensions " to which Mr. 
Parkman refers had led to the appointment of this fast; 
but even that did not prove of sovereign virtue, for the 
minister was not settled. The farm on which he built 
ceased to be the " ministerial farm," as he sold it, March 
5, 1725, to Benjamin Woods, of Marlborough, for £300. 
Mr. Parkman seems to have had only the fifty acres as- 
signed by the Marlborough proprietors in 1710, together 
with such land as he subsequently bought for himself. 

On the 3d of March, 171 8, was held the first in the 
series of " March meetings," which has come down un- 
broken to us to-day. At that meeting John Fay was 
chosen town-clerk, which office he held for eleven years. 
John Fay, James Bradish, Thomas Ward, Thomas Forbush, 
and Thomas Newton were chosen selectmen ; Edmund 
Rice, constable; Samuel Fay and Gershom Fay, surveyors 
of highways; David Brigham, tithing-man; Samuel For- 
bush and Daniel Warrin, fence-viewers; Thomas Ward, 
sealer of leather; Thomas Rice, town-treasurer; and Isaac 
Tomblin and John Maynard, field-drivers. 

Four months of wintry weather passed, after the vote 
"to build a meeting-house forthwith," before anything 
whatever was done. At length, in April, they " agreed to 
put a place to vote to set ye meeting-House upon; " and 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 53 

it was decided to set it "upon the northeast corner of John 
Maynard's lot." In May, John Maynard and Edmund 
Rice formally gave the town the desired land, — three 
quarters of an acre belonging to Maynard, and one quarter 
of an acre to Rice. This land was a few rods northwest 
of the farm-house on the grounds of the Lyman School, 
near the spring. 

The site obtained, the town at once voted to go on with 
the building. In the following October — 

" it was a Greed and uoted to Raise the meetting house uppon 
the 2i d of the Jnstant October. 

" uoted to procuer Six Gallons Rhum and a Barrall and half 
of Syder for the raising the meetting house in s d Town." 

Doubtless the drink tasted just as good as if it had been 
spelled in better form; at any rate, there was plenty of 
it. The good Puritans of that day were a thirsty folk, and 
they had no Sandra pond water. At every raising, ordi- 
nation, town-meeting, ministers' association, wedding, and 
funeral something enlivening was on tap, and had ample 
justice done it. No minister called at the houses of his 
parishioners without being offered the cup of courtesy, 
nor did he decline with thanks. The settlers brought the 
custom over with them when they came, and thought no 
more harm of it than a temperance advocate of this day 
does of a cup of tea. Nor was there any great riot of 
drunkenness. There had as yet been no immigration of 
the disreputable classes from all the States of Europe to 
show what drinking comes to when it thrives unchecked 
among the lawless. So no thunder struck the meeting- 
house when its frame was raised to the chorus of well- 
moistened throats, and the work of building went on. 

Let us not imagine, however, that it went on with any 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

rapidity. The citizens had to do the work, in addition to 
their own labors. Moreover, there is no evidence that 
they felt in a great hurry about it. It was the law that 
they must build a meeting-house forthwith, and they passed 
the vote accordingly ; but then they rested. Time never 
was when, to the average man, public interests were more 
dear than his own affairs. And these men, who put off 
having schools as long as they could without being "pre- 
sented" at Court, were not going to be driven in the 
matter of a meeting-house. We must distinguish, un- 
doubtedly, between the leaders of the movement that 
brought our fathers to these shores, and the rank and file 
that followed them. Among these were good, bad, and 
indifferent. Efforts were made to get rid of the bad as 
fast as possible ; but not all who were so eager to take up 
the lands in these pioneer towns were equally anxious to 
set up the institutions of religion for their own sake. They 
would do it, for it was the law; but they would not hurry, 
nor seriously neglect their own affairs for the sake of it. 

So it was two years and a half before they were ready 
to lay the floors, put in seats, hang the doors, and build 
a pulpit. On the 4th of November, 1720, the first town- 
meeting was held in the building, which was thenceforth 
the place for all town-meetings until the division of the 
town ; but it was not yet finished. A year later we read 
of an effort to stir up those who were delinquent in their 
subscriptions to provide boards, plank, and " raials " for 
making seats, and a workman to do the work. In 1722, 
^"40 were granted to finish the meeting-house and to pay 
those men who had contributed more than their share in 
work or materials; and not till Sept. 9, 1723, — five years 
from its commencement, — did the town reach the important 
vote " to compleate finishing the meeting-house." 



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BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 55 

This edifice, so long in building, was not of elaborate 
architecture, — a plain rectangle, forty feet by thirty, guilt- 
less of porch or chimney, with a door at the east end and 
another at the west. Unpainted and devoid of all orna- 
ment, it was typical of New England life in its outward 
aspect at that period. Within, the pulpit was midway on 
the north side ; two rows of " seats," which were nothing 
more than benches, faced it, with " an Alley Betwen the 
men and women through ye midel of the Mett. house," in 
accordance with a special vote of Sept. 21, 1720. These 
seats were assigned to members of the congregation with 
careful regard to dignity, the oldest and most wealthy of 
those who did not have pews having the front seats. The 
space around the walls was granted by vote of the town, 
" to be improved for pews." These pews were not built 
by the town, but the " pew-spots " were sold ; and each 
owner built his own pew as he would build a house on 
a lot he had purchased, making it, within the limits 
assigned, in accordance with his own ideas. They were 
large, square, family pews, and they held, for more than 
twenty years, the first families of Westborough. 

Thomas Rice had the space next the pulpit on the east; 
Thomas Forbush was next; John Fay was on the east 
side, north of the door; Samuel Robinson, south of the 
door; David Brigham was in the northwest corner; John 
Maynard, who entertained the ministers who supplied the 
pulpit from time to time, was north of the west door; 
James Eager and Joseph Wheeler, south of it. 

This meeting-house was the centre of the religious and 
political life of the town until the latter was divided, in 
1744, into north and south "Precincts." It witnessed the 
labors of the first settled minister, the Rev. Ebenezer 
Parkman, for twenty years; and when finally, in 1748, it 



$6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

was taken down, its materials were used in the structure 
of the new house, which still stands, and has long been 
familiarly known as " the Old Arcade." 

Two other public institutions were finished before the 
meeting-house. In 1721 the town was "presented at Con- 
cord Corte " for not having a pound, as the law directed ; 
and consequently, on the nth of August, it was voted 
to build one thirty feet square, on a piece of land given 
for it by David Maynard for ten years. The towns of 
those days held common lands for pasturage, as well as 
the meadows, and stray cattle were liable to be found fre- 
quently; hence every town had a brand-mark of its own 
and a pound, where strays could be detained till called 
for ; hence also the then important office of " fence- 
viewer," — a relic of antiquity still retained in name, in 
town organizations, if not in actual practice. 

The other institution was the town-stocks, for building 
which John Pratt was " voted and granted Eight Shilin " 
in 1723. There is nothing to show how much use this 
institution received in the years following; but in most 
towns it was by no means idle. The number of offences, 
both civil and ecclesiastical, for which this punishment 
was prescribed by the laws of the early colony was 
large, and there was usually a vigorous enforcement of 
the penalty. 

The first recorded appropriation for highways was 
made March 27, 1719, amounting to ;£io, or, at the ex- 
isting rate of currency, about $25. In 1722, £20 was 
appropriated for roads, and weights and measures for the 
town's use were purchased. It was voted also to pur- 
chase a book for the town-records ; though it was not 
until five years later, according to the testimony of the 
book itself, that it was bought and used for entries. 



BEGINNINGS OF TOWN LIFE. 57 

In 1 72 1 John Fay, David Brigham, and Thomas Ward 
were appointed trustees " to go to the Province Treasurer 
and take out the proportion of bills that belong to the 
town." This was the beginning of sorrows from an 
inflated and depreciating currency, which afterward be- 
came so heavy a burden to the colonies. The same 
committee were authorized to let out the money for the 
town's use, " not letting a bigger sum than £4 or £5 
to one man, except in the conclusion that there be a 
necessity for it." 

This paper money, to which frequent allusions are made 
under the name of " the bank," " loan-money," etc., was 
the result of a recent plan, devised by the General Court, 
to relieve the financial stress of the colony. When our 
fathers came to this country they of course brought 
specie with them ; and although they made use, in lack 
of sufficient cash, of a system of barter, they had substan- 
tially a coin basis till near the close of the seventeenth 
century. After the failure of the attack on Quebec in 
1690, which cost Massachusetts £50,000, the colony, find- 
ing itself much embarrassed, was forced to begin the issue 
of bills of credit, which subsequently resulted in a ter- 
rible depreciation of the currency. In 17 14 the matter of 
finance was under discussion in the General Court, and a 
scheme was finally adopted, by which the colony issued 
notes to the amount of £50,000 to the towns, who ap- 
pointed trustees to receive them, and to loan them in 
small sums to individuals at a reasonable rate of interest. 
This loan in the hands of the trustees was called a " bank." 
But these notes depreciated until they were worth only 
about one tenth of their face value. About 1729 a new 
issue of £60,000 was made, which was to be redeemable 
in specie ; and the old notes were to be redeemed at the 



58 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

rate of 50J. for 6s. %d. in silver. This gave rise to the 
terms " old tenor " and " lawful money," frequently occur- 
ring in the records, — the one being about seven and one 
half times the other ; and in practical business nine or ten 
of " old tenor " passing for one of " lawful money." 

So, step by step, the new town was becoming organized, 
and taking up its share, with the rest, of the responsi- 
bilities and privations of the colony. For a long time, 
however, the chief interest centres around the meeting- 
house and the minister; and we shall best understand the 
life of that day if we follow somewhat closely the story 
of the simple ecclesiastical life, of which the civil life 
was but one part. 



CHAPTER V. 

1723, 1724. 
HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 

IN 1723, the year of the completion of the meeting- 
house, the town was engaged in the effort to settle 
accounts with Mr. Elmer, whom, for reasons that are not 
apparent from existing records, the people did not wish 
to retain as their minister. When a man had come into 
possession of the ministerial farm in those days, it was 
his by inalienable right so long as he lived. If the town 
desired a new minister, as it seldom did, it could only 
acquire the minister's land by purchase from its occu- 
pant, who could, if he chose, refuse to sell, or ask an 
exorbitant price. In the present case it was not until 
after a good deal of delay that the matter was finally 
arranged, by giving Mr. Elmer the land he claimed. 
After this had been accomplished, the town was ready 
to comply with the second part of its agreement with 
the General Court at its incorporation, and procure a 
settled minister. 

Accordingly, on the 13th of May, 1723, £40 was voted 
for " a Town Stock to Soporte the preaching of the Gos- 
pell." On the same day David Maynard was appointed 
sexton of the meeting-house, " to sweep, and lay up the 
cushions, and shut the doors." There the matter rested 
for eight months. On the 6th of January, 1724, a town 
meeting was held to take active measures for obtaining a 



60 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

minister. Evidently there was a similar tardiness here to 
that which we noticed in the building of the meeting- 
house, and due to the same causes. We have to be 
careful in estimating the feelings that prompted these 
people, lest on the one hand we give them credit for 
more piety than was really theirs, or on the other fail to 
see how central in importance, among all the public in- 
stitutions, was the church and its equipment. Then, as 
always, those who fully appreciated the religious privi- 
leges they sought were the few ; they had to drag the 
rest. Had it not been that the law compelled the peo- 
ple, and that their political privileges depended on the 
doing of it, they might have lived on for a generation 
without moving in the matter of a church. There were 
those who would have deeply regretted it, but they would 
have been powerless. 

And yet, on the other hand, no man of average intelli- 
gence of that day could fail to see the great importance 
which attached to the institution of the pulpit. The 
minister of the town was chief magistrate and instructor, 
as well as preacher. He supplied the place of all our 
modern institutions for the diffusion of intelligence, saving 
only the school; and that for a long time was inter- 
mittent and rudimentary, and in Westborough was not 
as yet begun. These inland communities were, as we 
have seen, isolated and lonely. Boston was a long way 
off, and the only means of conveyance thither was the 
back of a horse. The days of these men and women 
were uneventful, their labor was hard, news was scarce, 
information almost inaccessible. Books were a rarity, 
the newspaper was only just born in this country, and 
the few already existing had small value. On the 24th 
of April, 1704, the "Boston News Letter" was issued as 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 6l 

a venture; but after fifteen years its circulation had not 
reached three hundred copies. It contained less than 
would fill half a column of one of our dailies, was 
printed on a half sheet, and its only advertisement 
stated that copies might be had, on reasonable terms, 
of the proprietor. 

Others had sprung up by 1720; but they were feeble, 
and of very limited circulation. In 1721 James Franklin, 
whose younger brother, Benjamin, assisted him in his 
printing, began to issue an independent sheet, called the 
" New England Courant." But owing to his temerity in 
attacking pet institutions, he was soon obliged to sus- 
pend it; and the irrepressible boy Benjamin, after carry- 
ing on his brother's paper for him in Boston for a short 
time, started out on his memorable trip to Philadelphia 
and fame in this year, 1723. 

With such scanty means of information the young 
towns depended, to a degree seldom equalled, upon the 
minister for whatever they might have that linked them 
with the life of the great world beyond them. These 
ministers of early New England were educated men. 
The era of the apotheosis of ignorance as a qualifica- 
tion for spiritual leadership had not yet arrived. They 
lacked the opportunities of the older English universi- 
ties, but Harvard already stood for all that was possible 
in education with the advantages available, and her gradu- 
ates were well drilled in the dead languages and in such 
philosophy and theology as were then current. Litera- 
ture, indeed, was scarce. The ministers of that day 
knew nothing of well-filled library shelves, or of reviews 
and periodicals. They, as well as their people, were 
out of the sweep of life as we know it to-day; but they 
were nevertheless the best cultured men of these com- 



62 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

munities, and were correspondingly revered and looked 
to for a sound opinion on all things, terrestrial and 
spiritual. Their sermons were the plainest utterances of 
the current views of religious truth, straying but little 
into the broader fields of life and thought; but they 
stood in place of newspaper, convention, lyceum, and 
school to the people to whom they ministered. 

However slow, therefore, the people might be in moving 
toward their goal, we must nevertheless understand that 
when they finally planted the institution of a church and 
a minister, they had taken the most important step in 
their history, and that they knew it, and were, in their 
slow way, greatly interested in it. It was not, then, with- 
out a definite purpose and some deep convictions that 
they at last took steps to obtain a minister who might 
settle with them and become connected with the life of 
the town. The quaint record of that town meeting of 
Jan. 6, 1724, is worthy of transcription: — 

" Pursuant to an order from the Select men, the Town 
meete : first uote, Capt. John Fay was chose moderator of 
the meeting. 

" 2ly it was tried whether the Town was Ready to nomaneate 
a Gentelman or two jn order to Setell with us in the work 
of the Gospel ministry amongst us in s d Town, and the uote 
apeared in the afirmetive. 

" 3iy It was agread and uoted that Mr. Parkman and Mr. Eliot 
be in nomanation in order for Electtion of a Gospel minister to 
setel in s d Town. 

" 4-ly uoted that Jeames Braddish, Daniel Warrin, and Jacob 
Amsden be a Commeette Chosen to aquant the above noma- 
nated Gentelmen with the Town's acts and to wait upon them as 
ocation shal Be. 

'* 5ly The Town made choice of John Maynard to Entertain 
the ministers at the Town's coust. Then uoted that this meet- 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 63 

ting Be a journed to the 20th currant, att 12 o'clock at noon, 
and then mett and uoted to a journ this meetting to the : 24 
Currant at noon at the meett : house in said Town ; and then mett 
agane and agread and uoted that Edward Baker and William 
Holloway Be a Commeete to Go to Sum Rev d ordained Eld- 
ers that are a quanted with Mr. Ebenezer Parkman and Mr. 
Jacob Eliot, Both of Boston, and Candideats for the ministry, 
for their advice and Recommendation in order for Election as 
the Law Directs." 

In February the town granted £2>0 for a yearly salary, 
and ^"150 for a "settlement;" the latter to be paid in 
money in three years, fifty pounds a year. Ebenezer 
Parkman was chosen *as the minister of the town, and 
James Eager and Edward Baker were appointed a com- 
mittee to wait on him with the town's call. 

Preliminary to his reply, he sent them, some time during 
the spring, a letter asking for a trifling improvement in the 
terms of settlement; namely (as copied in the bad spell- 
ing of the town clerk), "That the mony propofed for my 
fetelment be in fum fhorter and more Convenient time ; 
that the town would Procuer my Wood; and that they 
would Take into Consideration y e finking of our money." 
To this the town responded, — 

Reuer nd Sir, — As to your propofels, on the other fide 
the town has Confidered them, and Do not Comply with them. 
But what we have all ready propofed we ftand Ready to per- 
forme ; and we Hope as we Grow and Jncreas that we Shall be 
able to Do more. 

This Agreed to and uoted in the Affirmative. 

Josiah Newton, Moderator. 

But that his chief anxiety was not concerning the tem- 
poralities of his office, the following memorandum, now in 
possession of one of his descendants, abundantly shows: 



64 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Westborough, Wednesday, May 13, 1724. 
This day I solemnly consecrated [by ye grace of God] a Day 
of Fasting and Earnest Address to Heaven for Neccessary Direc- 
tion in ye Momentous Concern of returning an Answer to ye Call 
of this Town to me to ye Evangelical Ministry. In it I proposed 
these Petitions especially : — 

1. For remission of all my multiplied and heinous Iniquities, 
& particularly unprofitableness under ye Means of Grace, and 
Negligence & Sloth in ye Great Business God has been pleased 
to Employ me in. 

2. For success in my Ministrations ; and that I my Self may 
be thereby continually and Eternally advanced and Saved. 

3. For Singular Wisdom and Prudence rightly to Determine 
in ye Weighty Case before me relating to this People : That I 
may have right Aims in all I do or Design ; That ye Glory of 
God and ye eternal Salvation of Precious Souls may be ye Fun- 
damental and Moving Principles ; and that no secular Prospects 
may bear sway any otherwise than in Subordination and Agree- 
ment to ye Sovereign Will of God. Finally, yt Peace and Love 
may be Established in all my Management; yt Christian charity 
may abound ; And that ye work of God may be exceedingly 
prospered. 

4. That God would provide for my Comfortable Subsistence, 
and Grant me a Contented Heart w th ye Portion he shall Carve 
me out. 

Lastly, That He would more and more qualify me for His 
work, And improve me in it, & Grant me Grace to be faithful, 
And at last bestow on me a Crown of Eternal glory. E. P. 

Meantime the town was impatiently waiting for his reply. 
The call had been extended in February, and it was now 
the middle of May; and although it was not the habit 
of the people of those days to hurry anything, they had 
begun to feel as though it would be gratifying to know 
whether they were to have a minister. The town meeting 
had already adjourned five times, and the following Mon- 
day adjourned again; but the candidate would have time 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 6$ 

for full deliberation, and it was the 5th of July before the 
town clerk was at last able to conclude his meagre record 
of adjournments with the statement : " and then met, and 
received Mr. Parkman's answer to ye town's call," — an 
answer which proved to be an acceptance. 

Ebenezer Parkman, who from this time for more than 
half a century was so intimately connected with the life 
of Westborough, was born in Boston Sept. 5, 1703, and 
was therefore at the time of his call twenty-one years 
of age. His father, William Parkman, was one of the ori- 
ginal members, and afterward a ruling elder, of the New 
North Church in Boston, which was organized in 17 12 at 
the North End ; and his brother Elias was a mast-maker 
in the same section of the city. His grandfather, Elias, 
lived in Dorchester as early as 1633. In 1717, the year of 
the incorporation of Westborough, Ebenezer was admitted 
to Harvard College, being then only fourteen years of age ; 
he graduated in course July 5, 1721. During the ensuing 
winter he taught school in Newton, and in April, 1722, 
went to reside with his brother Elias, where he remained 
nearly a year and a half, studying part of the time in Cam- 
bridge, and part of the time in Boston, until he began to 
preach in the neighboring country. 

Boston at this time was a thriving seaport town of 
nearly twelve thousand inhabitants, having, according to 
an old chronicle, " 3000 houses, 1000 of them being 
of brick, the rest of timber; 42 streets, 36 lanes, and 
22 alleys," — which lanes and alleys have been a grief 
of mind to hapless strangers to this day. George I. 
was king of the colonies, and Samuel Shute gover- 
nor ; the latter, being immensely unpopular, had just 
left for England to lay his grievances before the king, 
leaving William Dummer, the lieutenant-governor, to act 

5 



66 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

in his stead for some six years. Slavery was not yet 
in disrepute either North or South, and it is a little 
startling to those of us who have learned to revere the 
Parkman name, to find it in an advertisement of this 
sort in a paper of 1728: — 

" April 1. Mr. Henry Richards wants to sell a parcel of 
likely negro boys and one negro girl, arrived from Nevis, and 
were brought from Guinea. To be seen at the house of Mr. 
Elias Parkman, mast-maker, at the North End." 

Following this is another advertisement, evidently of a 
" variety store : " — 

" April 22 d . Two very likely negro girls. Enquire two doors 
from the Brick Meeting house on Middle St. At which place 
is to be sold women's stays, children's good callamanco stiff'ned 
boddy'd coats, and children's stays of all sorts, and women's 
hoop coats, all [of course including the negro girls] at very 
reasonable rates. 

It was early in 1723 that Mr. Parkman began to preach, 
and we hear of him at Wrentham, Hopkinton, and Wor- 
cester. On the 2 1st of August he was waited upon 
in Boston by a Mr. Shattuck and invited to preach in 
Westborough. He accepted the invitation, and came up 
a day or two later on horseback, leaving Watertown at 
half-past twelve, and reaching Westborough about dark. 
He preached the two following Sundays, — August 25 
and September 1. 

Journeys in those days were not only tedious, but some- 
times hazardous. The woods were stocked with something 
more fierce than the rabbits and partridges of these degen- 
erate days. In 1721 Westborough "granted John Fay 
£1 10s. for defraying the charge he was at [as the town's 
representative] in answering complaint, or agreeing with 





y/lf?*-^^ 



This picture is reproduced from a pen and ink sketch made by a boy froi 
memory. It is probably not a good likeness. 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 67 

Mr. Lenard, of Worcester, at Concord about a Wolfs 
Head which the said Lenard sued the town for." This 
intimation that the towns offered bounties for wolves' 
heads makes it certain that they were still in dangerous 
numbers. Even thirty years later there was some game 
in these woods not to be despised of the hunter, as wit- 
ness the following items from the town records : — 

To the Town Treasurer for the Time Being : these may cer- 
tify that Jese Brigham brought to us a wild Catt's head that was 
under a year old, and it was Executed as the Law directs pr. us, 
Westborough, March y e 5 th , 1753. 

James Eager, Selectman. 
Eliezer Rice, Constable. 
N.B. This head was Brought in y e yeare 1750. 



■£° * 4« westbor: march 9, 1753. 

then Rec d y e whole of this Kitten's head in money. I say 
Rec d by Jesse Brigham. 

Nor were wild beasts the only inconvenience of the 
solitary traveller on horseback. Just at this time Indian 
hostilities were renewed, and the towns were full of ner- 
vous alarms. During his first visit Mr. Parkman walked 
to the meeting-house from John Maynard's, Saturday after- 
noon, August 31, with pistol in hand. At four o'clock 
an alarm was raised, and the people rushed to arms ; but 
happily no Indians appeared. 

By this time all sentimental feelings toward the red-man 
had vanished from the thoughts of the settlers, and even 
the desire to be just was becoming faint before the pres- 
ence of a terror which never wholly forsook them. Then, 
too, the mild Indian of Massachusetts had disappeared, 
and the savage whom they now knew was, as we have 



68 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

seen, the emissary of the Frenchman in Canada. The 
feeling of the time finds a very apt illustration in a 
passage in the Diary of young Parkman, written just 
before he assumed charge of a church in the wilderness 
of Worcester County. 

" August 23 d , 1724. 
" News that Capt. Harmon had Slain 5 or 6 more Indians at 
Norridgewock, with Sebastian Basle, y e Old Jesuit, and bro 1 in 
his and 26 or 27 scalps besides, and Delivered Three Captives 
from y e Enemy. Among those y r were slain of y e Indians 
Bummageem was one. His Wife and Two Sons were taken cap- 
tive, and Bro' to York and Piscataqua. And in all We lost Not 
a Man but an Indian, a Cape Fellow. DEO OPT. MAX. 
GLORIA TRIUMPH/. Capt. Harmon found an Iron Chest 
with y e Jesuit, wh. had many Letters in it, some from Gentle- 
men at Boston, (O Horrid) Betraying our Country." 

The mingling of the Puritanic horror of the Roman 
Catholic with the most ludicrous carelessness of Indian 
life makes the unconscious humor of this passage delight- 
ful. " Y e Old Jesuit " was a devoted and saintly man 
according to French Catholic ideas of saintliness, and 
made great sacrifices for the religious welfare of his 
red converts ; but he hated the English, and the Eng- 
lish returned his hatred with interest, accusing him, 
probably not without cause, of instigating his Indians 
to the diabolical deeds they perpetrated. The expedi- 
tions sent against him for a long time failed of success, 
and the Indians continued their mad career. But when 
at last he was caught, great was the exultation ; for the 
heart of New England had suffered long and severely, 
and its hatred had waxed hot. It found a pre-eminent 
fitness in some of the imprecatory Psalms for the temper 
of the hour. 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 69 

Such were some of the features of the frontier life 
into which this college-bred Boston boy came in the 
year 1723. On the 5th of January, 1724, he preached 
again, and the next day was held the town meeting 
above recorded, when he and Mr. Jacob Eliot were 
nominated as candidates. On Wednesday a committee 
of the town called upon him to inform him of the pro- 
ceedings. " And in truth," wrote the young man that 
day in his Diary, " I was at a stand (though I did not 
express any extraordinary hesitation), considering my 
incapacities on every hand." 

The next day he rode over to Hopkinton, where he found 
one of the race, not yet extinct, which loves to tell unpleas- 
ant news, — one Colonel How, who told him he understood 
how affairs were in Westborough, and that Mr. Thomas 
Ward had tried to raise an opposition to him. The news 
sobered his young ardor somewhat, but not sufficiently to 
interfere with his enjoyment of a sumptuous dinner the next 
day at " Mr. Whood's," where they had " roast goose, roast 
peahen, baked stuffed venison, beef, pork," etc. "After 
dinner," he records, " we smoked a pipe and read Gov. 
Shute's memorial to the King." 

In March following he became a member of the New 
North Church in Boston, organized in 1712, of which just 
a century later the Rev. Francis Parkman became pastor. 
When Ebenezer joined it, in 1724, the Rev. John Webb 
was pastor, and the Rev. Peter Thacher, colleague. In 
July he received his second degree, that of Master of 
Arts, from Harvard. On the 23d of August he preached 
again in Westborough. On Tuesday, the 1st of Septem- 
ber, there was held a meeting of those who proposed to 
become members of the yet unorganized Church, and on 
the Friday following they all called on Mr. Parkman, 



70 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

acquainting him with their proceedings and " their most 
happy union," and inquiring what he thought should be 
done farther. " They remained in conference," he said, 
" until sundown, and concluded with a prayer." For him- 
self, the young man was deeply sensitive as to the gravity 
of the duties he was assuming, and very humble as to his 
fitness for the work. The day after this conference, re- 
cording it in his Diary, he adds, " O, my inconstancy and 
instability in these unsettled times, when steadiness is so 
much demanded ! " It was indeed a time that called for 
nerve. Harassed with Indian depredations ; oppressed 
with depreciated currency ; forced to toil unremittingly to 
wrest subsistence from the yet unsubdued land ; struggling 
amid much ignorance and inexperience to lay the founda- 
tions of Church and State on a new and untried method, 
— these pioneers had need of courage and wisdom, and 
those who were to be leaders must be men of strong fibre. 
The young minister of those days had few advisers. His 
older brethren being in scattered parishes, and there being 
no means of easy assembly, he would usually be left to 
work out his problems alone. And not only that, but he 
was to be a leader in a sense which would be strange to 
us. He was first man of the town. No others were as 
well informed ; none carried his influence and authority. 
He must to a great degree direct the future course of the 
town. It meant something then to be a New England 
bishop, and we can pardon the modest shrinking of this 
youth of twenty-one from the responsibilities that were 
coming upon him. 

But his mind was not wholly absorbed, even at this time, 
with the gravity of his position : there were sweets mingled 
with the sternness of his experience ; and while he con- 
sulted with the elders and read up on his duties, his heart 



HOW THEY SECURED A MINISTER. 7 1 

was away at Cambridge, where a damsel of twenty-five 
summers, whom he knew, was busy with preparations for 
her wedding-day. Sunday over, and the consultations 
completed, he rode back to Boston, where a week later, on 
Monday, the 14th of September, he was married to Mary, 
daughter of Samuel and Hannah Champney. With only 
a brief time for nuptial festivities, the young couple began 
preparations for their removal and settlement, and in less 
than a month were on the ground and in their house. 

Meantime the town had observed Thursday, the 24th of 
September, as a fast-day, " in order to the gathering of a 
church in s d town, and for y e ordination of y e Rev d Mr. 
Parkman ; " and the neighboring ministers had met, as 
was customary, to conduct the solemn exercises and de- 
liver devout exhortations. On the 28th a town meeting 
was held, and it was voted "to ordain y e Rev d Mr. Park- 
man to be a pastor of y e church amongst us;" and Wed- 
nesday, the 28th of October, was fixed as the time. It was 
also voted "to send for y e elders in neighboring towns;" 
and a committee was appointed " to entertain them as 
usual at y e town's cost." 



CHAPTER VI. 

1724. 

ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH, AND ORDINATION OF THE 
FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 

FROM this time until the great day arrived that was 
to see them fully equipped with the institutions of 
religion, all thoughts were concentrated on one event. 
The people must needs be busy, one and all, in prepara- 
tion for the entertainment of the council and the guests. 
The young minister and his wife were gathering up their 
housekeeping goods and sending them to their new home. 
By the 12th of October they were moving into their house, 
which stood near the church. And besides all the worldly 
cares that kept feet and hands busy, the minister himself 
was deeply exercised concerning the weighty responsibility 
that was so soon to rest on him. He belonged to that 
class of New England ministers of the early time who 
felt their calling as an awful responsibility laid on them of 
God, and who lived and wrought, like Milton, — 

" As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye." 

And the taskmaster conception of God, though neither 
the highest nor the truest, furnished a goad to conscience 
which made stanch and sturdy men for a trying period. 
Mr. Parkman writes in his Journal, October 9: "My 
Business about this time was reading Ordination sermons, 
and wherever y e minister's duty was explained ; especially 
Van Mastricht de Ministerio Ecclesiastico." And on the 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 73 

14th he records : " This Day I Solemnly Dedicated to 
Humiliation and Prayer to prepare myself (by y e grace of 
God) for y e awfull Time approaching." 

The mention of his chief reliance for instruction in the 
pastoral office is suggestive of the dearth of books at that 
day on topics which are now embarrassed with fulness and 
variety of treatment. It is quite safe to venture the opin- 
ion that none of the young men who in the last ten years 
have entered the ministry from Westborough ever heard 
of " Van Mastricht de Ministerio Ecclesiastico." No pain- 
ful creeping through the dreary pages of a Dutchman's 
bad Latin was ever imposed on them. Instead, libraries 
pour out their treasures at their feet; learned and genial 
professors on homiletics give them the ripened and selected 
fruit of the century's thought. By contrast, the demure 
figure of this young man just come of age, reading, 
under the shadow of a great dread, his two or three pe- 
dantic books, and the labored and formal discourses then 
available, becomes pathetic. The mind of the present day 
is book-fed to repletion. It is hard to realize the position 
of those who lived in a famine of literature. Two books 
lie on my table as I write, inscribed with Ebenezer Park- 
man's name, one of which was a veritable part of his 
accoutrement at this time of pondering, having been pur- 
chased in 1723. It is an octavo of 558 pages, bound in 
calf and well preserved, printed in London in 1707. I 
give the titlepage entire, because, though such reprints 
are common enough now, this has especial interest to us 
as indicating the material of which the small library of 
the first minister of Westborough was composed. It is 
as follows : — 



74 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



VERITAS REDUX. 



Evangelical TRUTHS 

Reftored : 



.5 

"c, 



o 

J3 



55 



God's Eternal Decrees, 
The Liberty of Man s Will, 
Grace and Converfon, 
The Extent and Efficacy of 'Chrift\r 
Redemption, and 
^ Perfeverance in Grace, 

All briefly and plainly Stated and Determin'd 
according to the Holy Scriptures, the Ancient 
Fathers, and the Senfe of the Church of 
England. 

WITH 

A Full and Satisfactory ANSWER to all the 
Arguments;, 0\j\tcticn& and Cabtltf that have 
been made life of by any Writers agairift the faid 
DOCTRINES. 

BEING THE 

Firft PART of the Theological TREATISES, 
which are to compofe a Large BODY OF 
CHRISTIAN DIVINITY. 



By JOHN EDWARDS, D. D. 



LONDON: Printed for Jonathan Robin/on, John 
Lawrence, and John Wyat. MDCCVII. 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 75 

The author of this treatise was a clergyman of the 
Church of England, a graduate of Cambridge, and a doc- 
tor of divinity. He was born at Hertford, Feb. 26, 1637, 
graduated at twenty-four, and had charge, successively, of 
Churches in Cambridge, Bury St. Edmunds, Colchester, 
and Cambridge again. He received his doctorate in 1699, 
when he was sixty-two years old. From that time he be- 
came a voluminous writer and " a subtle, able, and learned 
polemic " of the high-Calvinistic type. When he pub- 
lished the "Veritas Redux" he was seventy years old. It 
is of no little assistance in comprehending the religious 
thought of the time, and the influences which moulded this 
first minister of Westborough, and through him left their 
impress on the generation, to glance at these pages which 
at the time we are considering were under his eye. Of 
the subjects treated in it, the first — The Eternal Decrees, 
or Predestination — occupies half of the book, being then 
regarded as the central truth of all theology. There are 
two prefaces, a " General " and a " Particular," which re- 
veal the author's personal characteristics. There are few 
more exquisite bits of unconscious humor anywhere than 
in these introductory essays. Apologizing for his fre- 
quent appearance before the public, he justifies it by the 
necessity of multiplying treatises " in this Degenerate Age, 
wherein Christianity is ready to breathe her last," and by 
a comical distortion of Eccl. xii. 12: "By these, my son, 
be admonished of making many books ; " " namely, for the 
promoting of Religion and Godliness." This "admonish- 
ing " is to be interpreted as advising " to compose many 
Books, and as it were without End," even though much 
study is a weariness of the flesh. As to his own qualifica- 
tions for following this ingeniously invented advice, he 
says : — 



•J6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

"If the abandoning of Prejudice contributes to the under- 
standing of the Doctrines of Religion, I may be allowed to say, 
that I 'm in the direct way to understand them aright ; for I have 
rejected several Notions, Dogmas, and Sentiments, which Com- 
pany, Education, Books, view of Worldly Advantages, and my 
own Inclination had invited me to embrace. I hope it will give 
no offence if I tell thee, Reader, that I reckon there are few 
Persons in a greater Capacity to enquire impartially into Truth, 
and consequently to attain to it, than I am, because I have no 
Biafs or Intereft upon me." 

At the close of the " particular preface " he shows 
unusual consideration for the purchasers of his little 
octavo : — 

" I have endeavored to bring the Whole within this moderate 
Volume, that I might not be overchargeable to the Purchasers of 
it. Or if they should think it too costly, they may solace them- 
selves with this, that they need not all their lives be at any 
further Expences. For I may be permitted to say, without in- 
curring the Imputation of Arrogance, That I have comprised in 
this narrow Compass, everything that can be said with relation 
to these Heads. So that I can assure the Reader he will never 
have occasion for the Future to lay out his Money on any Au- 
thors that have handled these Points. Which I hope will prove 
a Saving Caution to him, besides the Gain and Advantages 
which will accrue." 

This is delicious, especially as an introduction to 
themes which lie largely beyond the range of knowledge, 
and which have been responsible for more verbiage and 
polemical writing than any others which have exercised 
the human mind. 

In regard to the serious teaching of the work, it may 
suffice to condense his theory of the divine decrees into 
a few sentences. God is supreme autocrat, acting, not 
rationally, but arbitrarily, in regard to Nature and man. 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. yj 

He has established absolute decrees concerning all natural 
and even inanimate things, " Particularly concerning that 
noted Meteor the Rain." " The number of the Showers of 
Rain and of the very drops of them is determined : And the 
particular Places and Cities which shall have the benefit of 
them are also appointed " (p. 2). In like manner God is an 
absolute and inflexible fate in relation to man's life. "The 
Physician's Care and Aid, used about his Rich Patients, are 
successless, when at the same time the Shiftless and the 
Poor, who cant go to the cost of Physick, escape the dan- 
ger of it, and of the Disease, and are soon recovered." 
Doubtless he had correctly gathered certain facts looking 
in this direction, but connected the mystery piously with 
divine decrees, rather than with the superiority of Nature's 
processes of healing to the bungling and savage methods 
of the physicians of his day. In the same way God arbi- 
trarily discriminates between persons, inasmuch as the 
same causes work very different results in different cases. 
And his comfort for the afflicted takes, in consequence, 
such form as this : " Dry up your tears. Surcease your 
extravagant Sighs and Groans when your Friends take 
their farewell of this World. . . . Why should you im- 
moderately lament their Death when they could not 
possibly live a minute longer?" (p. 49). And yet Chris- 
tianity had been in the world seventeen hundred years 
when some of its ministers had only such cold comfort 
to give ! 

But the pitiless theorist has a more bitter pill for his 
readers. It is the eternal and deliberate purpose of God 
" to leave a certain number of men in their Corrupt State 
and Guilt." He might save them, but he will not. " He 
might have hindered the Fall, but he would not." " He 
wills sin by suffering it to be," and then wills not to 



78 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

redeem from it. " Tho' Sin be not good, yet that there 
should be sin is good, yea necessary." " Thus we have 
gain'd by the Fall, and (if I may so say) God hath gained 
likewise." Moreover, " This [sin] gives God an oppor- 
tunity of exerting his Vindictive Righteousness in inflicting 
Punishment on Sinners." Divine Love "must pass some 
by, to render it the more acceptable to others, and to com- 
mend the Discriminating Favor of the Most High." "The 
inflicting of Punishment on incorrigible Sinners, and con- 
sequently the Decreeing of that Punishment, is one way 
whereby the Glory of God is exalted : Whence it is that 
their Punishment is pleasing and delightful to him." This 
theological speculator, with his infantile reasonings, should 
have stood for an hour on the slope of Olivet beside the 
Christ who was weeping over doomed Jerusalem. 

Morality he makes one thing in men, and another in 
God ; what we should condemn in any man as selfish or 
cruel or unjust, may be nothing of the kind in God. This 
is the sophism to Avhich eighteenth-century Calvinism 
was forced to resort if it would maintain its position. If 
God were the pitiless autocrat they pictured him, and 
if it must nevertheless be maintained that he was the 
Absolute Justice, then must words be juggled with, and 
justice in God mean something else than any justice man 
ever conceived. 

He cannot avoid meeting the Scripture statement that, 
as he renders it, " God willeth all men to be saved." But 
how does he meet it? Not by the inference that if God 
desires all men to be saved, their loss must be their own 
choice rather than his, but by the arbitrary assumption 
that when God speaks thus graciously " it cannot be an 
Absolute and Definitive Will that is meant." It only 
means that God willeth some of all mankind to be saved. 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 79 

That is, it is only when God wills to condemn men that 
the will is absolute. 

It might seem that before a man could thus chop lame 
logic in cold blood concerning the divine character and 
the fate of man, he must have had the human heart chilled 
out of him. But it is only a violent divorcing of head from 
heart during the process of reasoning about a " scheme." 
By and by his better feeling begins to assert itself. He is 
logically forced to believe in an absolute decree in the case 
of every man, — of salvation for the elect, of reprobation 
for the vast mass of humanity. But something in him 
revolts. There is a divine spark of kindliness in him that 
is better than anything his system will allow him to toler- 
ate in God, and it is so strong and so divine an instinct 
that it will come out. Therefore although his theory 
warns him and disproves his better thought, and shakes 
a menacing finger in his face every step of the way, he 
proceeds to make exceptions to it which he confesses he 
has no authority for. There are doubtless those, he main- 
tains, for whom the decrees of God are not absolute; and 
thus he opens " a Door for Hope and Relief." " I con- 
sider three Ranks of Persons," he says, whom he proceeds 
to specify as the elect, the reprobate, and " perhaps a 
third sort, who fall not under either of these Decrees, but 
are in a state of Probation, and are not definitely predes- 
tined to Salvation or Damnation." So speaks out the 
better feeling in this delightful child of seventy years of 
theologic lore, though the admission makes a fatal breach 
in his theory. And he carries his illogical hope even into 
heathen lands, and sturdily contends that though no hea- 
then can be saved in the ordinary way, " yet in an extra- 
ordinary way the salvation of such Heathens [viz., those 
who lived after the coming of Christ] is not to be doubted 



80 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

of." What these " extraordinary ways " are, he specifies 
at some length in a manner which demonstrates his hope- 
less lack of a sense of humor, to say nothing of intellectual 
breadth. He thinks idiots and infants will be saved, or 
at least baptized infants ; and " tho' there is no reason to 
hold, with the Turks, that all Fools and Madmen go to 
Heaven, yet it is generally believed that some of them 
do." Some heathens may be saved without faith ; some 
without good works ; some because God does deviate 
from his ways in certain observable cases. " All Pagans 
are not peremptorily to be sentenced to Destruction, see- 
ing there may be Ways and Methods not known to us 
which God may think fit to make use of for their eternal 
Welfare." He " does not like " the theory of future pro- 
bation. But they may be saved without their knowledge, 
— "as I may have my Debts paid by a friend, and so be 
discharged, and yet have no knowledge of the Person who 
doth me that kindness." And he thinks "we may reason- 
ably conceive that God can work inherent Sanctification 
on Heathens on a sudden." So cries the heart of the 
man ; and yet on the very next page, being confronted 
again by his theological system, to which he feels he must 
be loyal, at whatever cost, he wheels around " on a sud- 
den " to a statement which, by the rules of logic, nullifies 
all his speculations, that if men can be saved by the light 
of nature, then Christ's coming was in vain. 

And here, in the midst of all his inconsistencies, his 
childish reasonings, his firm belief in the infallibility of his 
Calvinism, and the manful struggles of his heart against 
its inevitable deductions, we leave this good doctor of 
divinity who helped to form the theological mould of 
Ebenezer Parkman's thought in his young manhood. I 
have presented this glimpse because it helps better than 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 8 1 

any description to make vivid the habit of thought and the 
general form of belief which characterized the community 
of the New England town when Westborough was born. 
And only by understanding that can we truly estimate 
the forces that generated the life of these communities, 
where religion was the highest concern, and the minister 
the undisputed authority. 

The day for which all previous days had been the prepa- 
ration, at length arrived, — the 28th of October, 1724. 
The Church was first to be organized, and then the young 
minister installed over it. The council met at Mr. Park- 
man's house, which stood near the rude meeting-house. 
It was composed of the following churches : the church in 
Framingham, the Rev. John Swift, pastor ; the church in 
Marlborough, the Rev. Robert Breck, pastor; the church 
in Lancaster, the Rev. John Prentice, pastor; the church 
in Sudbury, the Rev. Israel Loring, pastor; the church in 
Mendon, the Rev. Joseph Dorr, pastor; and the church 

in Weston, the Rev. Williams, pastor. The Rev. Mr. 

Breck, of Marlborough, and the Rev. Mr. Swift, of Fram- 
ingham, were unable to be present, leaving but four clerical 
members of the council. 

There were twelve men, besides the pastor, who were to 
constitute the new Church. They were Ebenezer Park- 
man, Thomas Forbush, John Pratt, Edmund Rice, Isaac 
Tomlin, John Fay, David Maynard, Thomas Newton, 
James Bradish, David Brigham, Joseph Wheeler, James 
Ball, and Isaac Tomlin, Jr. It is significant of the times 
that there were no women's names on the list, and no 
women in the Church until the next July, when six were 
received, evidently wives of some of the original mem- 
bers, including Mary, the wife of Mr. Parkman. The 
names of these six were as follows : Anna Rice, Abigail 

6 



82 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Forbush, Mary Parkman, Elizabeth Fay, Dorcas Forbush, 
and Bathsheba Pratt. 

A covenant had already been prepared by Mr. Park- 
man, — probably from the forms arranged by the Rev. 
Peter Thacher, assistant-pastor of the New North Church 
in Boston, of which Mr. Parkman was a member. This 
had at a previous meeting been read, considered, and 
signed by the candidates for Church membership. It is 
here given complete, as copied into the Church records 
in the handwriting of Mr. Parkman: — 

Westborough Church Covenant. 

The Day being arrived (which before was appointed for y c 
Gathering a Church and ordaining a Pastor over them), and 
the Rev d and Beloved Elders and Delegates being formed into 
an Ecclesiaftical Council, proceeded in very Solemn manner to 
the said work. The Covenant, which was signed by each of the 
members, was in this subfequent form : — 

Westb : Octob : 28, 1724. 

We (whose names are hereunto Subfcribed, Inhabitants of 
the Town of Westborough in New England) knowing that we 
are very prone to offend and provoke the Most High God, both 
in Heart and Life, thro' the Prevalence of Sin y' dwelleth in us 
and manifold Temptations from without us, for w ch we have 
great reason to be unfeignedly humbled before Him from Day 
to Day, 

Do, in the name of our Lord Jesus Chriffc, with Dependence 
upon the gracious Affistance of his holy Spirit, solemnly enter 
into Covenant with God and one w th another, according to God, 
as followeth : — 

1. That having chosen and taken the Lord Jehovah to be our 
God, we will fear Him, cleave to Him in Love, and serve Him 
in Truth with all our Hearts, giving up o r felves unto Him to be 
His People in all things ; to be at his Direction and sovereign 
Difpofal ; that we may have and hold Communion with him as 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 83 

members of Chrift's myftical Body, according to his Revealed 
will unto our Lives' End. 

2. We alfo bind ourselves to bring up our Children and Ser- 
vants in the Knowledge and Fear of God by holy Inftruction 
according to our best Ability : and in special by the use of 
Orthodox Catechisms, that the True Religion may be main- 
tained in our Families while we live. 

3. And we further promise to keep close to the Truth of 
Chrift, endeavoring, with lively Affection toward it in our hearts, 
to defend it againfl all Oppofers thereof, as God shall call us at 
any time thereunto. Which that we may do, We Resolve to use 
the Holy Scriptures as our Platform, whereby we may discern 
the mind of Christ, and not the New found Inventions of 
Men. 

4. We also engage ourselves to have a careful inspection over 
our own Hearts : That is, so as to endeavor, by the virtue of the 
Death of Christ, the Mortification of all our sinful Paffions, 
Worldly Frames, and Disorderly Affections, whereby we may be 
withdrawn from the Living God. 

5. We moreover oblige ourfelves in the faithful Improve- 
ment of our Ability and opportunity to worship God according 
to all the Particular Institutions of Christ in his Church, under 
Gofpel Adminiflrations ; as, to give Attention unto the Word of 
God ; to pray unto Him ; to fing his Praise ; and to hold com- 
munion each with other in the ufe of both the Seals of the Cove- 
nant of Christ, namely, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

6. We do likewise promise that we will peacefully submit unto 
the Holy Discipline appointed by Christ in his Church for 
offenders, obeying them that rule over us in the Lord. 

7. We also bind ourfelves to walk in love one towards another, 
endeavoring our mutual Edification j vifiting, exhorting, comfort- 
ing, as occasion serveth. 

And warning any Brother or Sifter which offendeth, not 
divulging private offences irregularly, but heedfully following 
the several Processes laid down by Christ for Church dealing 
in Matth. 18: 15, 16, 17; willingly forgiving all that manifest 
to the Judgment of Charity that they truly repent of their 
Miscarriages. 



84 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood 
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good 
work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing 
in his sight, through Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory for ever 
and ever. Amen. 

The covenant having been subscribed by the pastor 
elect and eleven other men, the council, having " got all 
things in readiness, as they supposed," proceeded in sol- 
emn state from the parsonage to the meeting-house, to 
begin the public services of the occasion. 

It would be worth something to us to-day if we could 
restore, even in our mind's eye, a picture of that autumn 
day and of those grave and reverend men as they walked 
in stately dignity to the little church. Very picturesque 
to us would be their antique garb, with small-clothes and 
shoe-buckles, the clergy in bands and wigs and scholars' 
gowns. Very oppressive to our lighter spirits would be 
their severe and unrelaxed faces, their slow and solemn gait, 
the air of deep awe and heavy responsibility which wrapped 
them about. But they lived in a stern and unkindly era. 
Life to them was not luxurious, nor even comfortable. 
They were wrestling with a wilderness ; they lived under a 
hard and stern conception of God that made life tragic 
with its weight of accountability, but also made it sturdy 
and unflinching, in face of dire necessity. They were men 
of integrity, who adorned their profession of religion. The 
learning of the ministers was not large, — it could not be 
broad in the modern sense, but it was careful and ready; 
their manners were formal, but they were the manners of 
gentlemen. They were autocrats in the new land by virtue 
of their commission from Heaven; but they used their 
great powers in the interests of good order and virtue and 
the highest welfare of the communities they led. 



THE FIRST SETTLED MINISTER. 85 

The dead leaves of late autumn rustled under their 
feet as they walked. The fields, robbed of their harvests, 
sloped away to the meadows as they do to-day. The 
rounded hills lay brown and soft to the southward; far 
away slumbered Wachusett in unbroken wilderness. The 
new meeting-house — a plain, square building, towerless, 
chimneyless, without even a porch to break its lines — 
stood awaiting them as the earnest of all that was to be in 
the future that lay dark to them. In the meeting-house 
were waiting the plain men and women of Westborough 
in their homespun garb (the men on one side of the 
aisle, the women on the other), awed in presence of the 
solemn occasion and the unwonted assemblage of digni- 
taries. They were unattractive in outward appearance, 
unless one searched the immobile faces for the lines 
of character; but they were men and women worthy to 
lay foundations, because they could lay them on prin- 
ciples that were deep and enduring, for which they had 
sacrificed already, and for which they were willing to sac- 
rifice. Around the outer walls, like sentry-boxes, were the 
pews of the more wealthy proprietors, and in front the 
high stairs led to the pulpit, to be filled soon with 
the " Rev d and Beloved Elders," to whom the people gave 
unmixed reverence. 

The public exercises thereupon began. The Rev. 
Joseph Dorr, of Mendon, made the opening prayer; 
the sermon — which, we may be sure, was not lacking 
in length or solemn formality of style — was by the 
Rev. John Prentice, of Lancaster. Then came a conse- 
crating prayer by the Rev. Mr. Williams, of Weston, 
setting the young minister apart to his sacred office. 
The Rev. John Prentice then came once more to the 
front, laying the solemn charge upon the pastor; the 



86 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Rev. Israel Loring, of Sudbury, gave him the right hand 
of fellowship, and the graver duties of the day were com- 
plete. Then the young pastor rose and read a psalm to 
be sung, and after the singing pronounced the benediction 
and dismissed the people. 

The day which Mr. Parkman had called, two weeks 
before, "y e awfull Time approaching," was over. Deep 
thoughts were stirring in his breast that night as the sun 
went down, as the pages of his Journal attest. It had 
been the grandest day of his life, and he resolved, with 
youthful ardor, to bring all other days to its high standard. 
And again and again, as the years went by, does he refer 
to itj, in solemn language, as the great day of days to him, 
to whose high promise and anticipation he feels that he 
has but poorly responded. 

The people rested in the satisfaction of a great under- 
taking accomplished, and a life-alliance, full of promise, 
consummated. They were now a town in very truth, 
since they had the institutions of religion. Nor were their 
congratulations vain. The newly ratified pastorate proved 
to be one every way honorable and beneficial to the com- 
munity. For more than half a century from that day, 
until his slender form grew bent, and his dark locks white, 
he administered his office in sanctity and honor. And 
the town grew around him and divided into two, and 
grew again and changed its centre, and built a new 
church, and filled it full and enlarged it, and bore its burden 
of the time, and its share in the Revolutionary War, be- 
fore his hand grew weary and laid down the pen. But it 
grew through all those years in the lines of sturdy worth, 
and laid foundations for our time broad and deep. May 
it be long before these true and patient men and women 
are forgotten here where their work was done ! 



CHAPTER VII. 

1724-1730. 

RECORDS. — CHURCH AFFAIRS. — SCHOOLS. — EARTH- 
QUAKE. — GROWTH OF THE TOWN. 

' I ^"HE years following were uneventful. It is not of the 
old days of legend and romance that we are study- 
ing, nor of nations and dynasties, whose brave figures of 
kings and nobles, with their history of wars and diplo- 
macies, excite our imagination by taking us into scenes 
where we are not likely, most of us, ever to go in propria 
persona ; but we are trying to bring back a little of the 
light and color of the days of our fathers in a simple New 
England town before it had been touched with the spirit 
of the modern time. There is, indeed, very little of the 
life and warmth of that time left in the musty records and 
meagre pictures that remain to us now. We are very 
thankful that these records, quaint and interesting as they 
are in their form, are so complete and so well preserved. 
Here, for instance, is this old book of Church records, 
written in the neat but cramped hand of Ebenezer Parkman, 
his entries covering the long period from Oct. 28, 1724, 
to Oct. 27, 1782. It is a small octavo volume, carefully 
rebound a few years ago by the thoughtful care of Samuel 
M. Griggs, and good for another hundred and fifty years 
of reverent handling. There are evidences of great pains 
on the part of the old minister — who was far from old 
when he began to keep it — to make it neat, and even 



88 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

ornamental. The heading on the titlepage is in red ink, 
as bright, apparently, as the day it was written. There is 
a margin of an inch on every page, leaving but small 
room for record, but so closely is it written that the printer 
would have to use small type to put as much on a page 
of similar size. On the fly-leaf following the titlepage 
are the following mottoes, a trifle ambitious, perhaps, 
and high sounding, but natural enough to the eighteenth 
century youth of twenty-one fresh from classic Harvard 
and full of the importance of assuming his first parochial 
charge : — 

And Moses wrote their goings out, according to their jour- 
neys, by the commandment of the Lord, and these are they. 
— Numbers xxiii. 2. 

Ubi Tres, Ecclesia est, licet laid. 1 — Tertull., Exhortatione 
Castitatis. 

In church dealing this rule is to be observed, scil., 

" Cuncta prius tentanda : sed immedicabile vulnus ense red- 
dendum est, ne pars sincera trahetur." 2 

It is a rule, — " Ubi nihil certe statuit Scriptura, mos populi 
Dei." 8 

" Instituta majorum (modo sint secundum Normam Divinam), 
pro lege tenenda sunt." 4 

In the library of the Antiquarian Society at Worcester 
there is a little pile of manuscript — written in the same 
minute hand, on the same diminutive page, but always 
preserving its margin for notes, corrections, and refer- 

1 Where there are three, there is a church, even though they are laymen. 

2 All things must first be tried ; but an incurable wound must be cut away 
by the sword, lest the sound part suffer. 

* Where Scripture lays down no fixed rule, the custom of the people is of 
God. 

4 The ordinances of the Elders (provided they are in accordance with the 
Divine rule) must be held as law. 



RECORDS. 89 

ences, — which constitutes a part of the Diary of Mr. 
Parkman during a period of fifty years. There were other 
volumes of the Diary and other manuscripts in possession 
of a great-grandson of the old minister, Samuel Parkman 
Jones, of Holliston ; but they were burned in a fire which 
occurred in his house some years ago. There are also, 
in the Antiquarian rooms, many sermons, in the same fa- 
miliar style of execution, requiring almost as much effort 
now to decipher as it originally did to write them. 

Of no less interest is the first volume of the Town 
Records. This contains the records of meetings from the 
very date of incorporation. The book itself, however, is 
not quite so old, having been purchased in 1727. The 
town ordered it to be procured in 1722; but nothing was 
done in a hurry in those days, and as it took five years to 
build the little barn of a meeting-house, it took no less to 
get the book that was to last long after the meeting-house 
had been forgotten. It was John Fay, the first " town 
dark," who attended to the business, and was granted, at 
a town meeting held Feb. 12, 1728, the sum of " 2s. 6d. 
a day for transcribing the town's acts into this new book." 
The task was accomplished in four days and a half, and 
netted him 1 1 J. $d. 

But much as there is of interest in these old documents, 
it is only after long familiarity with them that we come 
to feel the breath of the time upon our faces, or to catch 
a glimpse of the men and women as they were. The 
men were as yet mostly hard-working farmers, and they 
had to subdue the untamed fields without the aid of 
modern tools and machinery. Nor had they any work- 
men to take the brunt of the labor off their own hands. 
The boys had to begin early ; now and then a less thrifty 
man " hired out ; " here and there one could afford to 



90 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

have a negro slave. But there was little time for idleness, 
nor was it respectable. The one thing these men had no 
patience with was a shiftless body who could not be sup- 
ported without aid from the rest. The women had enough 
to do with the household and the rearing of the family 
and the spinning and weaving of the stuff for clothing; 
for he was a wealthy man who could afford anything other 
than homespun. There were great heart-burnings at one 
time owing to the attempt of one of the well-to-do matrons 
to outdo the minister's wife in the matter of a set of furs ; 
and thereafter the cats of the neighborhood walked cir- 
cumspectly, lest they should have post-mortem exaltation 
to the dignity of fur-bearing animals. In winter, when the 
farms lay idle, there was enough to do to cut and haul the 
wood for the year, for twenty cords would do little but 
go roaring up the vast fireplace, and twenty more were 
needed to do the warming and the cooking en route. 
The young men and boys, tough, hardy fellows, were 
fond of sports, as boys are everywhere ; but there was 
little time for them, except by the way, on a public occa- 
sion, or after a meeting of some sort, when wrestling 
was the great thing in vogue, and the champion had a 
certain glory in the talk of the town. In the evenings — 
which were short, for the early riser must be off to bed 
with the chickens — there was the mug of cider in the 
chimney-corner, or the stronger flip ; and the toddy-stick 
was not without its use when the neighbors dropped in, 
or the minister cast a solemnity on the company with 
his dignity and his wig and bands and the magisterial 
authority that kept the young life in repression. 

The little church had not as yet more than half an ex- 
istence. It did not hold its first communion till the 7th of 
March, 1725, and it had at that time but fourteen mem- 



CHURCH AFFAIRS. 9 1 

bers, with no woman among them, and no officers but the 
pastor. The vessels which were used on this occasion 
must have been from the household store of some one of 
them, for the first piece of service they owned was a 
flagon presented the same year to the church by " a friend 
of its welfare in Boston." It was fifteen years later before 
they had a baptismal basin, which, when it came, must 
have been a faxed font; for we read that in 1735, 10s. was 
given for the purpose, and four years later 10s. more was 
added, " by the same person, who also bought the basin 
Dec, 1739, and devised it to ye Church's use," to- 
gether with " a frame for the basin, with its Shaft and 
Skrews, &c, price 20s.," which " was given and devoted by 
ye same." 

Another note of the time is seen in a bit of record in 
the minister's Diary in January, 1726. We have seen how 
slowly everything was accomplished in the way of public 
works, whether in the building of the meeting-house, or 
the purchase of a town-book, or the settling of a minister. 
The same deliberation infected the habits of the people on 
Sabbath morning. " I observe," writes the young minis- 
ter, " a general delinquency in our people in coming to 
meeting, through which I am obliged to wait near half an 
hour, or altogether, as it has sometimes proved, before I 
could begin the exercises of worship." Doubtless there 
are those who will take malicious comfort in finding such 
venerable antiquity attaching to this custom ; nevertheless 
it is the historian's duty to be truthful. An emphatic 
illustration of this lagging deliberation occurred in con- 
nection with the appointment of the first deacons. They 
had been nominated as early as February, 1725; but 
it had been difficult to assemble the little church for 
business, so that more than two years and a half elapsed 



92 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

before any further action was taken. On the 5th of Octo- 
ber, 1727, a meeting was called to "confirm the previous 
choice or make a new one, and also to consider the want 
of sufficient vessels to carry on the orderly celebration of 
the Eucharist; " for as yet they had only the flagon pre- 
sented in 1725. Mr. Parkman says: — 

" The meeting was opened with Prayer to the Supream 
Bishop of the Church for Divine Direction and Conduct in 
the Affair undertaken. The Address ended, the Ends proposed 
were declared ; but Examining into the Number present, and 
Comparing them with those that were not with us, we found 
there was but a minor Part of the Church. Wherefore, Con- 
sidering with all the Importance of Every Such Matter in a 
Church (as hath reference to its officers), any proceeding to the 
Business mainly designed was by every one declined ; and since 
there must be a New Appointment, the other matter above men- 
tioned was likewise deferred to another Opportunity after it 
was somewhat discoursed about. So y r having again Suppli- 
cated a Benediction from God & appointed our Reassembling 
on this Day Se'nnight, the meeting concluded." 

Special pains were taken to notify the absentees, but 
at the adjourned meeting there were only eleven of the 
twenty-four male members present. Considerable discus- 
sion arose as to the validity of action by a minority; but 
they at length determined to proceed, and chose by writ- 
ten ballots, with a good degree of unanimity, John Fay 
and Isaac Tomlin as deacons. They accepted the office 
in January, 1728. The meeting further assessed a tax 
of two shillings on every male member, to purchase " a 
flagon holding two quarts, and two Pint Tankards, also a 
Bason for water of Baptism." 

On the 29th and 30th of October New England was 
shaken by an earthquake of considerable force. The 
earth trembled perceptibly, and the houses rocked. The 



EARTHQUAKE. 93 

effect upon the simple-hearted and religiously trained 
people was violent. They ran into the streets crying 
to God for mercy, sure that the calamity was a direct 
expression of His personal displeasure for their sins ; 
for so they were uniformly taught to regard all alarm- 
ing natural phenomena. The ministers everywhere " im- 
proved " the occasion, to warn the people of their 
transgressions, which were thus seen to be threatening 
them with the judgments of God. In December the Gov- 
ernor appointed a fast on account of it; and as late as 
February, 1728, Mr. Parkman used it at a church meeting 
to enforce a due sense of the importance of such meetings, 
and of observing law and order in the conduct of them. 
The meeting was called to consider some charges against 
Josiah Newton, " military clerk," afterward deacon ; and 
the address of the pastor, as indicating his strong con- 
victions regarding church government, and illustrating his 
style, is of sufficient interest to quote: — 

" The church had in y e Next place a serious and warm 
Discourse offered by y e Pastor, tending to and pressing y e 
Consideration of y e Momentousness and authority of church 
meetings and y e very good or very Evil Aspect they may have 
in y e church : y e awfull account to be given in to y e great Lord 
and Supream Bishop, of our Behaviour and management while 
together in this manner: The Fatal mischiefs of Divisions: ye 
Necessity of Caution in the Contentious Times, especially while 
wider y awful Rebukes of Heaven : upon y e whole, y l we ought 
to keep ourselves under y e narrowest watch, and carefully ob- 
serve y e Rules of y e Platform of church Discipline, it being y e 
Foundation y l we (as yet) are upon." 

It provokes a smile to-day that men should sincerely 
believe that an earthquake was sent for the special pur- 
pose of warning men to observe the rules of church disci- 



94 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

pline; but the belief was honest, and their use of it 
regarded as entirely legitimate. Science had not yet il- 
lumined the general public, and " seismic force " was an 
unknown term. Mr. Parkman held the same theories for 
himself that he used to hold his people in leash, as is 
strikingly illustrated in the following year. In the begin- 
ning of 1729 he was taken ill, and the malady proved long 
and serious. A fast was appointed in his behalf February 
9th, but in the following November he was still unable to 
preach, and the town voted him ;£io extra, in spite of the 
" desents " of Samuel Fay and Samuel Forbush, 1 and three 
weeks later voted to provide for " trainchant preaching." 
Even in the March following, the town is supplying the 
pulpit. An entry in Mr. Parkman's Diary, July 8, 1729, is 
of special interest for its quaintness of metaphor and its 
revelation of the working of his mind: — 

" I have warning from God by my Infirmities that I must re- 
move from my Temporal Possessions. This clay Tabernacle I 
now Inhabit Cracks, and threatens me y l it must Dissolve: 'Tis 
but Earthen ware, and it doth not Sound whole. A little matter 
will dash it to pieces. 

" Now what do I know about any Right I have to an Eternal 
Inheritance, to a Building of God, an house not made with 
hands, wherein I may spend an happy Immortality, since I am 
upon the move ? " 

So wrote the young man of twenty-five, in great physical 
depression. But youth and hardihood triumphed even 
over that long year's feebleness, and in the spring of 1730 
he returned to work. 

1 That Forbes and Forbush were originally the same name appears from 
a record in Mr. Parkman's Diary in 1727, Aug. 22: "Rode to Mr. Forbes" 
and married Com. Cook and Eunice Forbush; so they will spell their 
name." 



CHURCH AFFAIRS. 95 

One more incident illustrative of the times is in place 
here. On the 24th of May, 1730, not long after the pas- 
tor's return to his pulpit, Deacon Fay presented a brief 
confession to the church " for his irregular conduct on 
May 3d, when attempting a Speech to y e Congregation 
after y e usual exercises were finished; " of which he says 
that " how zealously and innocently soever it could char- 
itably be supposed to be meant, it was nevery e less very 
imprudent and of ill tendency, for it was immediately 
answered by Lieut. Forbush. He again reply d with ex- 
pressions of Passion and Threat, upon which issued much 
Disturbance altogether Criminall & Surprising upon the 
Lord's Day and after our holy imployment." Thus far 
the good deacon, whose spirit is most admirable and 
Christian. The lieutenant had not yet advanced so far 
in self-mastery, and refused to confess ; and it was not till 
July, 1734, more than four years later, that his confession 
came tardily in. 

In September, 1725, there had been a time of affection- 
ate interest and anxiety at the parsonage, as the frank and 
simple record of the Diary shows; and on the 14th a 
daughter was born to the young couple. Five days later 
the wee thing was taken to the meeting-house and bap- 
tized with due solemnities, the father and mother of the 
young pastor being present, and his father holding the 
child for its own father's consecration. " I called it," says 
the young man, with the beautiful simplicity of affection, 
" by my wife's name, Mary." This was the first of sixteen 
new-comers that greeted Mr. Parkman during the thirty- 
six years following. The New England stock had not 
reached the time of its decline ; it had all the vigor and 
vitality of the old English blood. Not even the ancient 
Hebrew could out vie the Puritan in singing, — 



0.6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

" As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, 
So are the children of youth. 

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : 
They shall not be ashamed, 
When they speak with their enemies in the gate." 

There were two brothers Fay, near the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, who lived on the " Fay Farm," and 
who had, as the years went by, the one twenty-two, and 
the other twenty-four children. As they were cousins, 
and lived near each other, it was desirable not to have the 
same names in the two families ; and before the forty-six 
had all made their debut, it became comically difficult to 
find Scripture names, and the latest comers had to take 
what they could get. 

The next step forward was the establishment of a 
school. Thus far they had done without. The church 
must come first, by law as well as by conviction. And 
the towns were slow in the adoption of public measures. 
Had not the Colony spurred them up, there is no telling 
when the reputation of our fathers for zeal in education 
would have been born. As a whole, they were not eager 
for schools. The wisest of them saw the necessity, and 
pressed for them ; but they had to work hard to accom- 
plish their ends. It was well, therefore, that on the statute- 
book was this Act of 1647: — 

"It being one of the chief projects of Satan to keep men 
from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keep- 
ing them in unknown tongues, so in these latter times by per- 
suading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true use 
and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted by 
false glosses of deceivers ; to the end that learning may not be 
buried in the graves of our forefathers in church and common- 
wealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors : 

" It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof, 
that every township within this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath 



THE SCHOOL. 97 

increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall forth- 
with appoint one within their towns to teach all such children 
as shall resort to him, to write and read, whose wages shall be 
paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the 
inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of 
those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; pro- 
vided that those that send their children be not oppressed by 
paying much more than they can have them taught for in other 
towns." 

The fine for non-compliance was fixed at ;£io. Every 
town of a hundred families must also have a grammar- 
school. Failure to comply with these laws was sure to 
be followed by the " presentation " of the delinquent town 
before the General Court. Westborough had already been 
presented once, for delay in providing the town pound, 
and encountered the same annoyance in 1753 for not 
having a grammar-school ; but this time it acted promptly, 
and, the religious institution being well started, took the 
next step forward, and on the 3d of October, 1726, voted 
to have a school kept in the town six months, and chose 
Daniel Warren and Edward Baker school committee. The 
former was one of the founders of the town, holding a 
large farm east of " the Plain," part of which is still occu- 
pied by some of his descendants. He was one of the 
most prominent leaders in town affairs for a long time. 
The latter was a young man of about thirty, who came 
afterward to have a leading influence, especially in edu- 
cational and religious matters. This committee was in- 
structed " to procure a suitable schoolmaster, to teach 
children to Read, write, and Sipher; and to provide en- 
tertainment for s d schoolmaster during the s d six months ; 
and also to provide a place or places for the school to 
be kept in." Edward Baker went to Brookfield, and found 
there a certain Joshua Townsend, who for the modest 

7 



98 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

sum of ;£i8 (then about $35) was willing to teach six 
months in three different sections of the town, and who 
from that time for twelve or thirteen years at least, was 
the pedagogue of Westborough. It is greatly to be 
regretted that we have no materials from which to con- 
struct the portrait of Dominie Townsend. The school- 
master of that day had a simple task, requiring no 
erudition, only a " faculty " for instruction and for redu- 
cing the youthful mind to a proper state of reverence 
for authority. The school-room was in a private house, 
two months at a time in each of the three sections of the 
town, which, at that time including Northborough, was 
large. There were no school-houses for forty years after- 
ward. And even the scanty salary of ;£i8 was not always 
paid without grudging. In that winter of 1 726-1 727 the 
town was evidently a little disturbed at the bills which 
were presented in connection with this schoolmaster : ten 
shillings to Edward Baker " for fetching him from Brook- 
field ; " j£i 4s. to David Brigham for entertaining him 
one month; and £,4 \6s. for entertainment elsewhere. 
Consequently, when the proposition came up, Aug. 28, 
1727, to employ him another six months, the town voted 
to do so, paying £18 as before, but " he paying for his 
Diet." It would seem that he had some hesitation about 
accepting this, as well he might have ; but he was prom- 
ised an additional pound as a compromise by Joseph 
Wheeler, which the town ratified the next February, when 
it was in better mood. But in the following year (1729), 
Thomas Ward, one of the residents of the north end of the 
town, formally entered his dissent on the town records 
against paying the schoolmaster £18 for the last half 
year. 

Remembering the scarcity and costliness of books at 



THE SCHOOL. 99 

this period, the absence of newspapers, and the seclusion 
of communities, it is evident that the student of that time 
was forced to curb his ambition within narrow limits. A 
pathetic little scrap of paper once fell in my way, in a pro- 
bate office of one of the counties of Massachusetts, which 
conveyed a very striking impression of the condition of 
these pioneers of New England education. It was the 
schedule of the library and effects of a Massachusetts 
schoolmaster in the reign of George II. It consisted, be- 
sides notes and bonds for money due him as a teacher and 
unpaid at his death, of a meagre bit of personal property: 
" Six linning shirts, a gown, a Broadcloth coate, a sadel 
and Bridel, Stockens, Briches, neckloaths, wescats, an old 
knife, and a come." So runs the execrable English of the 
poor Dominie's executors. The rest of the estate was 
a library of fifty-six volumes; but how unappetizing! 
Thirty-three of the books were catechisms, psalters, prim- 
ers, and hymn-books; the rest were such as " Mr. White- 
field's jurnel," "two books jntitled A preservation from 
Sin and folly," " Siance of Being, with Its affections," 
" The young man's Best Companion," " ye youth's in- 
structed in ye jnglish tongue ;" with some sermons and 
tracts. No gleam of the world's best literature ; no scrap 
of the endless stores of knowledge which to-day make 
the task of selection so much more difficult than that of 
acquisition. The familiar oratory about the profound con- 
victions of the fathers who always " planted the meeting- 
house and the school-house side by side on every hill-top," 
assumes too much. There were men who, like Edward 
Baker of Westborough, believed in education, and sacri- 
ficed a good deal to promote it. The makers of the Col- 
ony believed in it and fostered it. But the people generally 
had to be whipped up to the necessary expenditure, and 



IOO EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the schoolmaster had a hard time. It was not because 
there was a popular demand for the school that the school 
came ; it was because the men who influenced public sen- 
timent — the best men in the Colony — led the people, and 
would take no refusal, that at last the public feeling rose 
to the task of supporting the school. For though the gov- 
ernment of the towns was democratic, and every church 
member had his vote, the best men nevertheless took the 
place and the power which their education and capacity 
gave them, and dragged the lagging sentiment of the popu- 
lace up to the demands of the times. There is a valuable 
suggestion in the history of the early days of these New 
England towns for the exigencies of the present period. 

The town meantime was showing signs of outward 
growth and thrift. It even indulged in the modern luxury 
of a town debt for a short time ; but did not like it, and so, 
at a town meeting held Feb. 27, 1727, £14 was granted 
" to pay the town Debt and to buy a Burying cloth." 
The town lines were being carefully surveyed in con- 
junction with the authorities of adjoining towns. In 1727 
the line between Hopkinton and Westborough was " per- 
ambulated ; " in 1728 the lines between the town and 
Framingham, Marlborough, Lancaster, and Shrewsbury 
were adjusted. It is not quite easy to understand where 
Framingham and Westborough could by any possibility 
join. Southborough was not incorporated until the July 
following, and Ashland was not born; but Framingham 
joined Marlborough, not Westborough, whose eastern line 
has always been the same as to-day. The line between 
Lancaster and Westborough was the same essentially as 
the present line between Northborough and Berlin, for 
Westborough included Northborough, and Lancaster 
included Bolton, Berlin, Clinton, and Sterling. 



GROWTH OF THE TOWN. 10 1 

During the same year nineteen hundred acres were 
added to the town area on the south, from Sutton, on 
which there were ten families. This area is essentially 
the angular southern projection of the present town; the 
southern line originally running straight from the angle 
on the road between B. A. Nourse's and Jasper Fay's to 
Cedar Swamp, and intersecting the Upton and Hopkinton 
roads a little below their junction. The incorporation of 
Southborough in July called for some readjustment of 
boundaries, which was finally made in 173°- 

This growth and accretion seems to have filled the 
meeting-house quite to its present capacity, and we hear 
of a gallery and of extra pew-room granted. On the 5th 
of February, 1729, the town gave " the vacant room be- 
hind ye front Gallery to Beriah Rice, Noah Rice, Phineas 
Hardy, Abner Newton, David Maynard, and Aaron Hardy, 
as far as ye south window, to build a pew ; they making a 
good seat before their pew for ye Boys, and mending ye 
glass and barring ye casement of s d window." In May 
the southwest corner of the gallery was granted to Thomas 
Bruce, Jonathan Fay, and Eliezer Rice for a similar pur- 
pose. Two other town institutions besides the meeting- 
house required attention at about the same time. The 
lease of the land granted by David Maynard in 1721 for 
ten years as a site for the town pound having nearly 
expired, Ensign Thomas Newton and Daniel Warren were 
directed, in 1730, to provide " a sufficient Pound and 
Stocks," according to law. And so the town is holding 
on its way, with provision for all its needs and with a 
prospect of increasing prosperity. 

There was one disadvantage, however, which by this 
time began to be severely felt, — the depreciation of the 
currency. In 1729 the Colony issued a new loan of 



102 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

;£6o,000, to be apportioned to the different towns in the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay. The town voted to bear 
its proportion, and appointed Daniel Warren, Joseph 
Wheeler, and Thomas Forbush trustees, who should re- 
ceive the paper money and let it out to the inhabitants of 
the town in sums of not more than ten nor less than five 
pounds. Joseph Wheeler went to Boston for the money 
at the town's expense. But this paper currency was full 
of mischief. The interest was not paid regularly, and in 
June, 1730, the town voted "to call all the trustees to 
account for the interest money of both banks, and to look 
over Capt. Fay's account." The other " bank " or loan 
was that which the town had assumed its share of in 
1 72 1, and of which Capt. John Fay, David Brigham, and 
Thomas Ward were the trustees. But the chief trouble 
was in the depreciation of this inflated currency. The 
notes of the former loan, now called " old tenor," were 
practically worth only about one tenth of the new bills ; 
and these in turn depreciated until, in 1731, it took £340 
in currency to equal ;£ioo in coin; and in 1738 the ratio 
was five to one. The way-marks of this depression are 
strikingly seen in the votes regarding Mr. Parkman's 
salary. This was fixed in the beginning at £80 a year. 
In 1728 they added £10 to it; in 1729, during his illness, 
the same, but with two recorded " dissents ; " in 1730 they 
added ^30, and £,6 more for firewood; in 1733 they 
added £60, and in 1737 .£80, doubling the original 
salary: but as it was payable in currency, it would have 
been necessary, in order to make it really equal to the 
original sum, to have voted £"400. And yet this was 
only the beginning of sorrows in this direction. The 
war of the Revolution, with its financial bankruptcy, was 
to come. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1730-1744. 

THE NEW COUNTY. — BEGINNINGS OF DIVISION. — 
CHURCH MUSIC. 

FOR the first twenty years of its existence the town 
had little to do except to attend to its own affairs, 
with small reference to the larger business of the State. 
The first record of the choice of a representative is in 
the year 1738, when a town-meeting was called on the 
22d of May " to choose a Debuty to sarve for and repre- 
sent them in a Great and General Court of this province, 
to be convened, held and kept for His Majesty's Sarvice 
in Boston, for the year ensuing, and Capt. James Eager 
was Elected and Deputed for the Sarvice above-men- 
tioned." "His Majesty" at this time was George II., 
George I. having died the previous year; and Jonathan 
Belcher was governor of the Colony. 

It was about this time that Worcester County was organ- 
ized, and courts and county roads became matters of local 
interest. The incorporation of the county dates from 
April 2, 1739. It included eight towns of Middlesex 
County, — Worcester, Lancaster, Westborough, Shrews- 
bury, Southborough, Leicester, Rutland, and Lunenburg; 
five in Suffolk, — Mendon, Woodstock, Oxford, Sutton 
(including Hassanamisco), and Uxbridge, with the land 
" lately granted to several petitioners of Medfield ; " and 
Brookfield, in the County of Hampshire. Three courts 
were to sit in Worcester, as the county town, — a " Court 



104 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

of General Sessions of the Peace ; " an " Inferior Court 
of Common Pleas; " and a "Superior Court of Judicature, 
Court of Assize, and General Gaol Delivery." The first of 
these courts consisted of all the justices in the county, 
and was presided over by one of the four judges of the 
Inferior Court of Common Pleas. Besides attending to 
minor criminal cases, it had charge of the county affairs, 
such as laying out roads, licensing inns, and admitting 
freemen. It took the place of the General Court of the 
Province in enforcing the laws requiring towns to support 
a competent ministry and to have schools and pounds 
and stocks and other paraphernalia of law and order. 
The Court of Common Pleas had four judges. It was a 
court of appeals from the lower court, and had civil 
jurisdiction in the county. The Superior Court was a 
provincial body, and held annual sessions in each county, 
having charge of more serious civil and criminal cases, 
and hearing appeals from the lower courts. 

Westborough had appointed a committee in November, 
1728, to act with other committees of towns in relation 
to the formation of the new county. The committee 
consisted of Daniel Warren, Jacob Amsden, and John 
Maynard. In 1730 a county road was laid out through 
the town, — corresponding probably for the greater part 
with the " Connecticut way " of fifty years earlier, which 
ran from Marlborough through Northborough and Shrews- 
bury to Worcester and Brookfield, and thence to Spring- 
field on the Connecticut. The same year we hear of 
constables, for whom the town voted " black staves," and 
whose duties, so far as recorded, seem to have consisted 
principally in preventing paupers from getting a settle- 
ment in the town. In February, 1731, Jonathan Forbush 
was granted twelve shillings " for Entertaining and Trans- 



THE NEW COUNTY. 105 

porting an Ainchant woman from Westboro to Marlboro 
constable." And for several following years an " old Mr. 
John Green " was a sore trial to the thrifty farmers who 
had to " entertain " him by turns, and who appointed 
successive committees in town meeting to ascertain 
whether he belonged of right in town, and whether he 
had no relatives anywhere who could support or relieve 
him. This is a significant glimpse into the question of 
pauperism at that time. The sturdy yeomen, who had 
to work hard for their maintenance, had small sympathy 
for the helpless, who had no means of support. They 
would take care of them if they must, but had no fancy 
for the business, and made no adequate provision for it. 
The method was severely tonic in its effect. Pauperism as 
a hereditary disease belongs to a later time ; it could not 
develop well in the rigors of the early day. New Eng- 
land thrift was in part due to the irrepressible dread of 
" coming on the town " in old age. It is a fair question 
whether the sumptuous almshouses of to-day, to say 
nothing of luxurious jails and prisons, are not indicative 
of an opposite extreme, the effect of which is to coax 
pauperism and shiftlessness with the bait of a fair asylum 
when helpless. 

In the parsonage a great change had occurred dur- 
ing these years. On the 29th of January, 1736, Mary, 
the young wife who had come with the minister to the 
wilderness in the days when Indians were prowling about, 
and had borne him five children, died, in her thirty-seventh 
year. The only record of her death, except that on the 
tombstone in the old cemetery opposite the town-hall, is 
the vote of the town in the following May to grant .£30 to 
pay the expenses attendant on her sickness and death. 
The Diary of Mr. Parkman from 1731 to 1743 is not avail- 



106 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

able. We know that she left at her death four children : 
Mary, the eldest, was ten ; Lucy, the youngest, one year 
and four months ; Ebenezer and Thomas were eight and 
six respectively; Lydia, born in 173 1, had died in 1733. 

Two years later Mr. Parkman brought a new bride to 
the parsonage, a fresh young maiden of twenty-one, — 
Hannah, daughter of the Rev. Robert Breck, the minister 
of Marlborough. She shared with him the rest of his life, 
bore him eleven children, and survived him nineteen years, 
passing away in 1801, at the age of eighty-four. 

In less than twenty years after the incorporation of the 
town the people began to feel crowded again, although 
the farms were large and there was plenty of wild land, 
which harbored some good game. As late as 1742 the 
town at its annual meeting appointed two " deer reeves ; " 
and there is reason to believe that it was not yet a merely 
nominal office. There were scarcely a hundred families in 
the whole section, including Northborough ; but the area 
of the town was long from north to south, and those who 
lived at the extremes, especially at the north end, found 
the meeting-house, which was also town-house, too far 
away. It was becoming crowded as well ; and we have 
already seen how, in 1729, a gallery was built, and seats 
were inserted wherever room could be found. There was 
also an increasing sensitiveness in regard to the appoint- 
ment of town officers, each section being jealous lest the 
other should usurp too many functions. As a result of 
this it happened that for several years more officers were 
appointed than were needed ; five, and in at least one 
instance seven, selectmen being chosen at the annual 
meeting. These causes, and others less traceable, were 
gradually bringing forward the question of the division 
of the single town into two. 








<*ris. 



BEGINNINGS OF DIVISION. 107 

One of the earlier signs of this movement which ap- 
pears in the records is connected with a town meeting 
early in 1736. , The year previous seven selectmen had 
been chosen, in order to satisfy both sections. This year 
James Maynard was chosen constable for the whole town, 
who forthwith "Declared his Refusal to Sarve; " for which 
refusal he paid, in accordance with the law of the Pro- 
vince, a fine of £5. Josiah Rice was then chosen in his 
place, and also refused, " and paid ye sum of five pound 
in money to ye Town for his non-Exceptance." This 
fine was one of the blessings derived from the Andros 
government. Under the old charter government it was 
fixed at twenty shillings; but Andros raised it to .£5. In 
the depreciated state of the currency this sum amounted 
to only about five dollars; but two thrifty farmers did 
not pay even that without a strong pressure, and the 
explanation is in the determination of the north end of 
the town to have a constable of its own, as the first move 
toward division. Yielding to the force of circumstances, 
the meeting finally appointed two constables, — one for 
the north, and one for the south part of the town. 

Next, the meeting-house became entirely inadequate, 
even with its gallery. Feb. 14, 1737, the town voted "to 
enlarge the room in the meeting-house by altering the 
seats in the body of the house below, and making more as 
they shall see good." Two weeks later it was determined 
" to build one seat Round in y e Gallery before y e seats 
y* are Built y r already," and " to build a convenient seat 
for ye women in y e front gallery to Raing with y e young 
men's pew y' is built there already." This sufficed to 
quiet discontent for a time, but in November of the fol- 
lowing year three radical propositions came up in town- 
meeting, — only to be peremptorily rejected, it is true, but 



108 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

indicating the inevitable issue that was coming. The first 
was to enlarge the room in the meeting-house. This was 
declined, evidently because it came from the wrong quar- 
ter. It looks a little as though the party of separation was 
specially devoted to church attendance just now, in order 
to crowd the building and demonstrate the necessity for 
a division of the town. The second proposition was to 
build a new meeting-house, which probably no one ex- 
pected to carry, but which was made in a spirit of chal- 
lenge to the stronger party. The third proposal was a 
blunt motion " to set off part of this town to be a town- 
ship by themselves." So ended the meeting, without ac- 
complishing any definite result; but the gage of battle had 
been thrown, and henceforth the matter was not to rest 
until settled. The enlarging of the meeting-house was an 
actual necessity, and so in February, 1739, it was voted " to 
shut up the Ally in the meeting house and improve it for 
y e men to set in ; " and five weeks later the additional step 
was taken of voting " to build three seats in the north- 
east corner of the meeting house, if the room will allow 
of it." 

The following year, in March meeting, the constable 
comedy was re-enacted, and three sturdy men in suc- 
cession marched up and paid .£5 rather than serve. So 
again, a month later, the temper of the majority empha- 
sized itself in the vote " to build one good and sufficient 
Pound for the town's use, to be set on the land of Mr. 
David Maynard, a little south of his dwelling house." 
This was probably somewhat farther north than the old 
meeting-house, and near the line of the present North- 
borough road. 

This was 1740, and the town now had more than one 
hundred families, as appears from the fact that it was 



BEGINNINGS OF DIVISION. 109 

presented at Court this year for not having a grammar- 
school master ; and Edward Baker was sent to Worcester 
to appear before " the Hon. Court of Quarter Sessions " 
to answer to the charge. The defence was probably 
based on the divided state of feeling and the probability 
of actual separation at an early day. Two years later the 
first movement toward school-districts was made, and the 
bounds of three were indicated. The following spring 
the north end had votes enough to defeat the motion to 
build one new meeting-house for the whole town. The 
motion was renewed in slightly altered form; to wit: 
" Shall the place where the meeting-house now stands 
be the place for one new meeting-house? " and this also 
passed in the negative. Then once more, as in 1738, the 
motion came up to set off the north part of the town 
with one half the area of the whole, and was again de- 
feated. Thus matters stood in town-meetings till 1744, 
with the single gain for the north-end people that in 1742 
a committee was appointed " to run a centre line east and 
west through the town as will best accommodate both 
parts of the town." This, however, accomplished little, 
for in September, 1743, the town peremptorily refused to 
run a centre line or to build two meeting-houses. 

But meantime more effective measures were being set 
in operation in another direction. About 1741 the nor- 
therly residents began to absent themselves from public 
worship in the town meeting-house and to hold services 
by themselves in the house of Mr. Nathaniel Oake. This 
was a sore trial to Mr. Parkman, who felt that he had been 
settled as the minister of the whole town, and opposed 
the division tenaciously from first to last. But he could 
not stay the tide, and in 1743 the question of sanctioning 
this sectional gathering came before him in an unexpected 



110 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

way. He was asked to baptize seven persons at Mr. 
Oake's house, " where y e Publick Assembly of that Corner 
of y Town was Commonly held." After much hesitation 
and consultation he performed the service on the 3d 
of April. 

"But this was not done," says the cautious and reluctant 
minister, " before I had laid it before y e Chh. and Congreg" of 
y e Town, and obtained their Concurrence ; nor was it till I had 
stopi y e Chh. members of y e North side of y e Town to make 
Enquiry into their meeting by themselves (that I might be 
certify- of y e true Cause and y e manner thereof) and known 
of them that the Reasons of their so doing were not from 
Negligence, Disgust, &c, but because of y e inconvenient Dis- 
tance, and Difficulty of their and their Children's Travelling to 
y e Meeting House ; nor till it was known what faithfulness they 
had used in Improving y e means of public Instruction among 
them, & Dispensation of y e pure and holy Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Yet it was intimated to them that y e chh. ought to 
have expected some Word Concerning their Absence, and that 
y e Neglect thereof was undoubtedly a breach of Church order ; 
inasmuch as by our own Chh. Cov- we are expressly bound to 
Hold Communion in the word and Sacrament. Unto which 
y e Brethren manifested their concurrence, as well as that they 
Desired and Purposed to approve themselves Covenant people." 

This stern catechising at the hands of their spiritual 
head, now in the prime of manhood and wielding his 
sceptre with the strongest convictions of his divine right 
and of the necessity of maintaining strict order and disci- 
pline, was a sufficiently trying ordeal for the north-side 
people; but they, as well as he, had developed no little 
sturdy independence, and had no intention of giving up 
their purpose at anybody's dictation ; and so, while they 
yielded so far as to take their lecture patiently, Mr. 
Parkman saw no course but to give way to the tendency 



BEGINNINGS OF DIVISION. Ill 

of events, and so gave their assembly the sanction of his 
priestly service in baptism. After that there was no 
going back. 

In February, 1744, Mr. Parkman recorded in his Diary 
that he had received information that " a number of North 
side people met those of y e South side last night at Capt 
Fay's, to gather subscriptions to a petition to y e General 
Court that y e Town may be divided." " At y e same meet- 
ing," he adds, with characteristic irrelevance, " Eliezer 
Rice broke his legg by wrestling with Silas Pratt." Nine 
years later the same Eliezer Rice became a terror to all 
unruly youths by assuming the black staff of a constable. 

But this little act in the drama of separation, which 
ended with a broken leg, was succeeded by a movement 
which was likely to break the heart of the worthy minister. 
At the March meeting following, the north-side people 
refused to pay their rate toward the good man's salary, 
not from any dislike to him, but as a forcible measure to- 
ward separate incorporation. From that time he felt as 
if a part of his rightful parish had rejected him. He did 
not appreciate fully the necessities of the case, and only 
yielded to the inevitable with bitter disappointment. 

But now that matters had gone so far, the remaining 
steps toward a practical division were rapidly taken. 
The petition prepared at the house of Captain Fay was 
duly presented in General Court; the town appointed, 
in May, a committee consisting of Capt. David Warren, 
Capt. John Maynard, and Mr. Francis Whipple, to make 
answer thereto; and the result was that while no new 
town was yet created, nor was to be for more than twenty 
years afterward, the north side was made a separate pre- 
cinct, with power to elect its own officers and transact its 
local business, and to constitute a separate parish, while 



112 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the two precincts were to assemble for town meetings, 
to be held alternately in the meeting-houses of each 
precinct. This result was consummated on the 20th of 
October, 1744; and from that time the principal in- 
terest of our chronicle lies in the southern precinct, whose 
boundaries were essentially those of the present town of 
Westborough. 

Another episode, so characteristic of the period as to 
claim more than a passing notice, occurred six years 
after the organization of the Church. It is a curious 
but well-attested fact that the bitterest disputes in the 
ecclesiastical organism have arisen in regard to the least 
essential matters. The general tendency received a spe- 
cial emphasis in the history of psalmody and music in 
the New England churches. The struggle between pro- 
gress and conservatism was long and bitter ; party spirit 
ran high. On no subject was there such deep feeling. 
Never was there a more persistent clinging to that which 
was essentially bad on account of its age and venerable 
aspect. 

The Church at Westborough came into being at a time 
when the subject of singing in worship was undergoing 
a slow and tortuous but inevitable revolution. The Ply- 
mouth pilgrims had brought with them from England 
Ainsworth's version of the Psalms, and used it until 1640. 
It had its imperfections as a book of sacred poetry, as 
witness the following rendering of the first verse of the 
first Psalm : — 

"O Blessed man, that doth not in 
the wickeds counsell walk, 
nor stand in sinners way, nor sit 
in seat of scornful folk." 

Still more lame is the effort to conform to the exact 
words of Scripture in Psalm cxxxvii., — 



CHURCH MUSIC. 113 

" 1. By Babel's rivers there sate wee, 

yea wept : when wee did mind, Sion. 

2. The willows that amidds it bee 
our harps we hanged them upon. 

3. For songs of us there ask did they 
that had us captive led-along ; 

and mirth they that us heaps did lay: 
Sing unto us some Sion's song." 

Not less amusing to the cultured ear is the rendering 
of Psalm cxxxix., — 

" Jehovah, thou hast searched me and known ; 
Thou knowest my rising and my sitting down ; 
Thou dost discreetly understand from far 
My cog-i-ta-ti-6n fa-mil-i-ar." 

A verse of Psalm lxxiv., of which the prose is as fol- 
lows : " Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right 
hand ? Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them," 
was thus rendered, — 

" Why dost withdraw thy hand abacke, 
And hide it in thy lappe? 
O, plucke it out, and be not slacke, 
To give thy foes a rappe." 

But these rude lines, to which long use made the 
earliest churches accustomed, became so sacred in their 
associations that when, in 1640, the Bay Psalm-Book 
was compiled by an association of New England min- 
isters, it met with great opposition. Salem would not 
give up Ainsworth until 1667, nor Plymouth till 1692. 
The questions raised in this discussion are curiosities of 
religious inquiry; for example, — whether the singing of 
the Psalms of David in a lively voice was proper in 
these New Testament days; whether it was proper for 
one to sing, and the rest to join only in spirit and in 
saying amen, or for the whole congregation to sing ; 

8 



114 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

whether it was proper for women as well as men to 
sing ; whether "pagans" — i. e., the unconverted — should 
be permitted to sing with the rest. But in due time the 
Bay Psalm-Book came into general use throughout the 
Colony. Whether the ideal of poetic form had therein 
been reached, we may judge by the following rendering 
of Psalm cxxxiii. in the Bay Psalm-Book : — 

" How good and sweet to see 
it 's for bretheren to dwell 
together in unitee : 
It 's like choice oyle thai fell 
the head upon 
that down did flow 
the beard unto 
beard of Aron : 
The skirts of his garment 

that unto them went down : 
Like Hermon's dews descent 
Sion's mountains upon: 
for there to be 
the Lord's blessing 
life aye lasting 
commandeth hee." 

Couple with this style of rhythmic flow the lack of 
tunes " understanded of the people," of which there were, 
until 1690, only eight or ten, — and these sung in different 
churches in totally different ways, — and one may gain 
some conception of the need of a reform. One of those 
who was most vigorous in laboring for a change writes 
that " every melody was tortured and twisted as every 
unskilful throat saw fit ; ... it sounded like five hundred 
different tunes roared out at the same time." And the 
time was as bad as the tune. " I myself," he says, " have 
twice in one note paused to take breath " ! 

About 1720 there came a revolt against this sheer 
wantonness of conservatism; and in the reform the pul- 



CHURCH MUSIC. H5 

pit led off, assisting those who tried to introduce written 
music and better performance. Singing-schools came 
into existence ; musical notation was introduced. ' All 
this was done in the midst of the most strenuous oppo- 
sition from the deacons and the people who stood for 
the good old way. The new way, they said, was not so 
melodious as the old ! There were so many tunes, they 
never could learn them; it would lead to the use of 
instruments yet; the very names of the notes were blas- 
phemous. And a writer in the " New England Chron- 
icle " said : " Truly, I have a great jealousy that if we 
once begin to sing by rule, the next thing will be to pray 
by rule and preach by rule ; and then comes Popery." 
In 1723 the Rev. Mr. Niles, of Braintree, suspended seven 
or eight of his church members for persistency in singing 
by rule. 

But the matter was taken up vigorously by the clergy, 
and sermons and pamphlets were preached and published 
in defence of the new way. The Rev. Thomas Symmes, of 
Bradford, was prominent in the contest, and the puissant 
Cotton Mather came to the front with a bristling array 
of arguments. Finally, in the revivals that preceded the 
"Great Awakening of 1740," the superiority of the new 
over the old was so completely demonstrated that the 
victory, so far as it had gone, was complete. 

In Westborough, as in some other places, it was the 
pastor who was the daring innovator. The earliest mur- 
murs of the strife have died away without record, but on 
the 7th of September, 1730, the town took the matter up, 
as indicated in the following unique record : — 

"Pursuant to an order from the selectmen, the town met. 
1 uote, Jacob Amsden chose moderator for this meeting ; James 
Ball and Jacob Amsden enter their Decents against the suck- 



Il6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

seading uote. 2ly, uote to see whether or no the town will sing 
the usual way, and the uote passed in the Affirmative." 

In the February following, a church meeting was held 
in relation to the matter, which had grown to serious 
dimensions. There was grave talk of discipline, if it 
could be found who the chief offenders were. James 
Ball and Jacob Amsden must have been a little uneasy 
in their minds just then. The pastor, who knows well 
enough that he is regarded as the most blameworthy, 
writes of it in his Journal with customary solemnity, but 
with a certain vagueness, as though there might be more 
behind. 

" Upon Prospect of the season revolving, and therewith Hope 
of Opportunity for ye Holy Communion, it appeared needful, by 
Prayer and other suitable and Prudent endeavors, to prepare 
and dress our souls with a Wedding Garment, to meet our 
Glorious Lord thereat." 

The meeting, when it came, hardly fulfilled this spir- 
itual prospectus ; and there is a much more earthly ring, 
even in the pastor's voice, when the battle is fairly set. 
Opportunity was given for complaints, whereupon Thomas 
Forbush intimated, with an outspoken boldness that shows 
how heated the public mind had become, that the trouble 
was occasioned by the pastor's not falling in with the vote 
of the town. This was speaking out in meeting, and 
brought the minister to his feet without more ado. The 
town, he said, had not proceeded according to church rule 
or civil law or his own counsel ; nor yet had he opposed 
them, nor disturbed them in their singing, but had only 
appointed the person to read (i. e., " line out ") the psalm 
and set the tune, and to say what tune should be sung. 
He proceeded to charge that the town meeting on an 



CHURCH MUSIC. 117 

article of divine worship was irregular, if not positively 
sinful, and any church members who had a hand in it 
were then and there rebuked. 

So the parson stood at bay, defying the whole town. 
What happened thereupon? Did the people rise in their 
wrath and send him adrift, as they might in these degen- 
erate days? The minister of that time held his office 
by no such flimsy tenure. He simply proceeded to ask 
them — not as one who sought their suffrages, but rather 
as though they might be thankful that they got no more 
severe handling — if there was still any uneasiness; and 
no one responding, he treated them to a brief dissertation 
on love and unity, and dropped the matter. The victory 
was plainly his, by virtue of the divinity that did hedge 
about a minister in those days ; and there is no farther 
disturbance recorded on that ground for forty years after- 
ward. It was the minister against the town, and the 
minister won, not so much by argument — though the 
argument was on his side — as by authority. That was 
the power of the early New England clergy; and it was 
fortunate for the people when, as in Mr. Parkman's case, 
the minister was disposed to use his power in the inter- 
est of popular progress. Westborough was not always 
so fortunate, as we shall see. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1730-1744. 

CHURCH ORDER. — PHASES OF CHURCH LIFE. — THE 
GREAT AWAKENING. — AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 

IT would be interesting, if it were possible, to restore a 
glimpse of the religious life of that period, in order 
to the better understanding of the events which revolu- 
tionized it. The early part of the century was for several 
reasons a time of general religious decadence. Here in 
New England, as we have seen, the settlers were too much 
occupied with their own affairs to give much thought to 
the affairs of another world. Between " buying a piece of 
land " or " five yoke of oxen " or " marrying a wife," they 
were ready to excuse themselves from absorbing interest 
in the kingdom of heaven. And in England there was at 
the same period a time of general looseness and corrup- 
tion. The clergy lost their spirituality, the higher classes 
gave themselves up to frivolity, and the lower classes be- 
came profligate and debauched. It was the reaction from 
this state of affairs in the mother-country that produced 
the great Methodist awakening, which, with all its extrava- 
gances, was a real forward movement in the kingdom of 
God, destined powerfully to affect two continents. 

Here, during the period of indifference, measures were 
adopted by the ministry and the more earnest leaders of 
the church which kept the truth frqm stagnation and pre- 
pared the way for better times. We cannot, indeed, restore 
what is of most value in the church life of that day; it 



CHURCH ORDER. 119 

is not a matter of records and documents. The throbbing 
heart of spiritual life, which is the soul of all history, can- 
not live again in printer's ink. But there are one or two 
special phases of that life which demand a passing notice. 

The desire for religious stimulus, which expresses itself 
to-day in endless meetings, conventions, associations, and 
itinerant evangelism, was then forced, through lack of easy 
and frequent communication, to find vent in occasional 
fasts, to which the neighboring ministers were invited, and 
which consisted of awakening discourses and prayers by 
the ministers, with no lay help. Not only were the an- 
nual fast-days sacredly observed, but in connection with 
every unusual occurrence in Nature (every drought, every 
season of epidemics, and notably the earthquakes of 1727 
and 1755), on every special occasion (the founding of 
the church, the illness of the minister, the separation of 
the north part of the town), and whenever the ministers 
felt that the people needed rousing, the inevitable means 
resorted to was a fast. 

It is an illustration of this that the Worcester Associa- 
tion of Ministers, organized in 1725, of which Mr. Park- 
man was the youngest member, voted in 1731 to turn the 
Association meetings into fasts " for the reviving of re- 
ligion, and imploring the Divine blessing upon the rising 
generation." For more than a year this was kept up, the 
ministers preaching in rotation. This was not, indeed, or- 
dinary; it indicated the beginning of a movement which 
was soon to spread over all the region: but it marks the 
habit of the time. One of these meetings was held at 
Westborough Nov. 17, 1731, and Mr. Parkman adds to the 
record of the meeting in his Diary this characteristic utter- 
ance : " O that it may be a fast that He has chosen ! O 
that our offerings might be pleasant to the Lord our God, 



120 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and that the great designs of the fast might be answered ; 
that we might feel and see a happy influence thereof upon 
ourselves and our children ! " 

Another means of promoting religious life and nurture, 
which was not occasional but regular in its operation, was 
the catechising of the children and young people by the 
minister. This was infrequent, occurring regularly but once 
a year, but looked forward to and prepared for, and dreaded 
too, by all the children, from Dan to Beersheba. The ex- 
ercise took place in mid-winter in the cold meeting-house, 
the boys attending in the morning, and the girls in the 
afternoon. It was discomfort enough to sit in the unheated 
meeting-house, into which no stove was introduced for a 
century after the founding of this church ; but the children 
were used to that, for they had to attend on Sundays as well, 
and though the warmth disseminated from the audience 
made it a little more tolerable then, it was anything but com- 
fortable. On a cold Sunday in January, 1686, Judge Sewall 
wrote in his Diary: " So cold that the sacramental bread is 
frozen pretty hard, and rattles sadly into the plates ! " 

But the cold was a small trial to the hardy children be- 
side the dread of the ordeal of catechising and the awe of 
the benignant and dignified man in gown and wig, who 
was to them the embodiment of all the awful sanctities of 
religion. The man who could carry his will with the congre- 
gation, and whom no man dared answer except under the 
stress of excitement, was looked upon with profound rever- 
ence by the children. Yet this catechising, which was a 
bequest from the old English custom, was not without 
benefit. Setting aside the dread of it, and the more seri- 
ous objection that the children were taught things they 
could in no wise understand, which is always bad instruc- 
tion, there were elements in the custom of much value. It 



PHASES OF CHURCH LIFE. 121 

connected the children definitely with the ordinances of the 
church; it taught them some things, in the way of Scrip- 
ture history, which it was good for them to know ; and it 
created a sense of responsibility in them that helped to 
make them sturdier men and women when they grew up. 
But one of the best outgrowths of the custom appeared 
here in the coming to the pastor voluntarily, in 1 741, of 
ten young women to confer respecting a further catecheti- 
cal exercise which they desired. A class was immediately 
formed, and the first lesson given out. It consisted of 
" three answers of the Westminster Assembly's Catechism, 
with proofs; and to wait upon an exposition " of the same 
by the pastor. The next week, at the first recitation, four- 
teen more young women came, and the next month six 
more, — making a noble class, whose frequent gathering was 
a stimulus to the pastor, and full of promise for the future. 
A third aspect of church life peculiar to that day is 
indicated by the emphasis that was put upon church 
discipline. This was faithfully maintained, and with a 
punctiliousness which indicates how important it was 
considered. The early records of the church seem, on 
a hasty reading, to be made up almost wholly of cases 
of discipline. Confessions were required from even slight 
offenders before they were admitted to communion, and 
in cases whose triviality occasions a smile. The authority 
of the church was most strenuously insisted upon and ex- 
ercised, howbeit with an evident desire to use all charity 
and tenderness. Mr. Parkman seems to have been especi- 
ally courteous and kind in dealing with offenders, yet un- 
flinching in doing his duty as the executor of church law. 
It is a fact which looks rather startling at first, that within 
two and a half years from the organization of the church 
in this little town there occurred six public confessions 



122 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

of some form of violation of the seventh commandment. 
It is also quite unintelligible to modern understanding 
that, in one case, a man was kept on trial, and suspended 
from the church some twenty-two years, before the final 
issue was reached. Yet in spite of exaggerations, this 
carefulness maintained, amid troublous times and among 
an independent and strong-willed people, a condition of 
comparative health and purity in the church, and gave to 
the world the conviction that the church believed most 
heartily in virtue, integrity, and order. 

These were the customary aspects of church life in that 
day ; but during the agitation concerning the division of the 
town there swept over the whole country a great wave of 
religious excitement, unprecedented in all its history, which 
constituted an era in the life of the church here, as it did 
everywhere. The year 1740 witnessed the beginning of 
the most marked demonstrations of what was known as 
"The Great Awakening." It was the year in which White- 
field began his work in this country. Five years before, 
Jonathan Edwards had shaken Northampton and all the 
Connecticut valley with the terror of his delineations of the 
doom inpending over all his unconverted hearers. In 
the South, Gilbert Tennent had done a similar work in 
the Presbyterian churches. And now, under the eloquence 
of the young Whitefield, twenty-six years of age, impas- 
sioned, zealous, and becoming, under the influence of the 
success and flattery which followed him, intensely fanat- 
ical, a contagion of excitement spread all over the land. 
Crowds flocked to hear him. People neither ate nor slept. 
Strange physical phenomena manifested themselves every- 
where. Edwards had the sense to repudiate these mani- 
festations as in no sense a part of the real work of grace ; 
but not so Whitefield and his followers. Naturally it was 



THE GREAT AWAKENING. 1 23 

not long before extremists arose, who cared only for these 
crazy freaks. That was the signal for a strong reaction. 
By 1743 protests against the extravagances of fanatics be- 
gan to come in from the leading ministers of the country 
and from the educational centres ; and when Whitefield re- 
turned to the country, after an absence, in 1744, he found 
a decided change in the atmosphere, and many pulpits 
closed to him. The movement had spent itself. 

It had done good. Violent as it was, it had cleared the 
atmosphere like a thunder-storm. It had been inevitable. 
It was the crisis of the conflict which had been going 
on for a century between the truth taught and the habits 
adopted. The failure properly to sift the membership of 
the churches; the adoption of the "half-way covenant; " 
and the belief in salvation by sacraments which followed 
naturally upon the rest, in connection with the study of 
Scripture and the Catechism, — had been preparing ex- 
plosive material; and this was the result. And with all 
the incidental evils which accompanied and followed the 
movement, there was this clear gain, that the church was 
thoroughly cured of those particular weaknesses which 
had previously threatened its integrity. 

During this time of universal excitement Westborough 
had not failed to be deeply stirred. Whitefield preached 
in Marlborough in the middle of October, 1740, on his 
way to meet Edwards at Northampton. In 1742 there 
were great manifestations of interest at Leicester and 
Grafton and other neighboring towns ; and Westborough 
felt the movement to a great extent. Jonathan Edwards 
preached here the 2d of February of that year, and 
again the 20th of October, with marked effect. There 
were here also, as elsewhere, the manifestations of over- 
wrought sensibilities. On the 13th of January, 1743, Mr. 



124 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Parkman wrote in his Diary: " A number of children were 
supposed to be much filled with the Spirit, and carried out 
in spiritual joy last night at Mr. Fay's. An Indian girl in 
great distress for her brother, and Betty Fay in terrors." 
One Isaiah Pratt lay insensible for a long time, his pulse 
exceedingly slow; and when he awoke, said he " had seen 
hell, and had also seen Christ, who told him that his name 
was in the Book of Life." Mr. Parkman counselled him 
wisely, gave him no encouragement to rely on his visions, 
and referred him to the plain word of God for direction. 
Amid all the excitements Mr. Parkman seems to have 
acted the part of a calm, wise man, rejoicing with joy 
unspeakable in all signs of the work of God, but pained 
and perplexed by the hysterical accompaniments, which 
nevertheless never carried him away from his discretion. 
When, in 1743, a protest was issued, signed by a large 
number of New England pastors, against the extrava- 
gances of the more fanatical evangelists, his name ap- 
peared among the rest. This was a second protest of 
the ministers, issued because it was felt that the first had 
been too radical for a politic paper. It was a wise, clear- 
headed document, whose positions time has but empha- 
sized. These ministers, while rejoicing in the good fruits 
of the great revival, protest against emphasizing impulses, 
to the detriment of the judgment and sense; against en- 
couraging excesses of physical demonstration ; against the 
invasion of the ministerial office by exhorters and irregular 
workers ; against the tendency to run away from the regu- 
lar church and ministry to seek excitements. It is good 
cause for congratulation to find the first minister of West- 
borough thus in harmony with the most judicious of his 
brethren. On the 9th of January of the same year he 
records the action of a church meeting at which " the 



AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 1 25 

present times, which are full of Religious commotions, were 
considered, and, that we might obtain ye blessing & avoid 
the snares, the church were very ready to vote, and did 
so, that we observe a Day of Solemn Fasting and Prayer, 
and that it be, God willing, this day sennight." 

This calm and steady endeavor to maintain caution and 
rationality in a time of great and general excitement was 
approved by the sequel. It was not long before the heated 
emotion died out ; and then from every place where there 
had been zeal without discretion there came reports of 
dissensions and divisions. Councils were constantly being 
called. Ordinarily the separatists, or " New Lights," were 
repudiated by the churches, and churches that had been 
harmonious were divided. Grafton was rent in pieces ; 
Sudbury and Ipswich suffered severely; from Holliston, 
Rutland, and other towns came calls to Westborough to 
join in councils to settle difficulties; and the peace and 
comparative quietness which prevailed in this church was 
exceptional. Not that there had not been a deep and 
intense feeling here; not that there had not been dross 
mingled with the gold : but no one had been encouraged 
to mistake the dross for gold, and the truths of Scripture 
and reason had ever been held up as the guide, rather 
than the impulses of feeling. The results of the patient 
instruction of the twenty years of Mr. Parkman's ministry 
now appeared in full power. 

On the 28th of October, 1744, Mr. Parkman preached 
a sermon appropriate to the twentieth anniversary of his 
settlement and of the organization of the church. The 
identical manuscript from which he preached it lies be- 
fore me. It was not written out in full, and the notes of 
the last half are only headings. Like all his sermons 
and his Diary, it is written on small sheets of paper, now 



126 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

yellow with time, measuring about six inches by four. The 
writing is not merely small, but minute ; and a margin of 
nearly an inch is left for the insertion of notes, the number- 
ing of heads, etc. It is not easy reading ; how he ever read 
it in the pulpit is a puzzle. He used, as was the custom 
then, a great many abbreviations ; and as the lines are not 
more than an eighth of an inch apart, he succeeded in crowd- 
ing almost as much into a page as might have been printed 
in the same space. This sermon is numbered CCLXVin. ; and 
the notes of it are contained in seven of the small pages. 

He took his text from Genesis xxxi. 38 : " This twenty 
years have I been with thee." The first two of the seven 
pages are occupied with introductory matter illustrating 
the " custom of the servants of God to take special notice 
of the remarkable periods of their lives " by the example 
of Jacob in the text, of Samuel, of Moses, of Joshua, 
and of " the holy apostle St. Paul." He then comes to 
the matter in hand, and divides the body of the discourse 
into two main heads : " What God has done for us, " and 
" What we have been, and done, in return." The first 
head is written quite fully ; the second, which is subdivided 
into five sections, mainly of a hortatory character, is only 
indicated by a few phrases. As the memorial portion con- 
tains some few points not found elsewhere, and also fur- 
nishes a good example of Father Parkman's style, it seems 
worth while to give it entire, as follows : — 

" We are again brought, my dear brethren, to the 28th of 
October, — a day, as you may have remarked, I have been wont 
to take some singular notice of, being the day of our founding 
and ordination. But now, through the abundant mercy of God, 
we have arrived unto the twentieth year since ; and it is now 
our incumbent duty to consider seriously what God has done for 
us, and what we have been, and done, in return. 

" I. As to what the Lord has on his part graciously done for 



AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 1 27 

us (for indeed all that he has done for us has been very graci- 
ously and mercifully). Not only may we celebrate his wondrous 
love and pity to mankind in sending his dear and only begotten 
Son for the redemption thereof ; not only his inspiring the holy 
writers of the Old and New Testaments ; setting up the church 
in the world ; instituting his ordinances ; sending the gospel 
into Britain ; raising up his cause out of the darkness and super- 
stitions of popery (for the Reformation was like a resurrection). 
Not only the bringing the first fathers of this country, and plant- 
ing evangelical churches in this then howling wilderness ; but 
the Lord's great goodness and compassion towards the first set- 
tlers of this town, in supporting them under their great difficul- 
ties and hardships in their beginning this place, when they first 
came out of Marlborough to inhabit these woods ; and protect- 
ing them in times of great danger and troubles by the Indian 
wars, when some of their children were made a prey, and the 
rest of their lives were daily jeopardized, their toil and fatigue 
unspeakably sore, and their distresses many. Our ears have 
heard, and our fathers among us have told us, what great things 
the Lord has done in guarding and delivering them when but few 
in number, weak, and much exposed ; and as the most of them 
are (through the favor of God) yet alive, though some are fallen 
asleep, they can and ought to recollect and bear in mind, with 
highest gratitude, what a merciful and all-sufficient God did for 
you in those early days of this place, — succeeding and increasing 
you and yours from year to year. 

" But then again, it is not to be forgotten how the Lord was 
pleased to appear for the people, and extricated you out of great 
perplexity and temptation when you had fallen into hot strife 
and contention, and your attempts to settle the ordinances of 
Christ among you were rendered abortive. 1 And doubtless it 
becomes us all to take a suitable, and that a very grateful, notice 
of the hand of God in erecting a church of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, — one of his golden candlesticks, — and setting up his 
ordinances here in this place, though it were after some time ; 
and that these things were done with so observable an unanimity 
and agreement on the part of the inhabitants. Nor would I fail 

1 Referring to the trouble with Daniel Elmer. 



128 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

to add, as St. Paul in I. Tim. i. 12, — a little varied, — that I 
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, the most 
unworthy, for that through his grace he counted me faithful, 
putting me into the ministry. Nay, it would be injustice if I 
should not mention also, to the glory of God, the kind reception, 
the affectionate esteem, which was generally manifested when I 
came to you, as well as the tolerable peace and harmony which 
was then visible amongst yourselves. 1 

" As to what has been chiefly remarkable, — since we cannot 
but observe the sparing mercy and goodness of God to us from 
one year to another, and at some particular periods very memor- 
ably ; but especially, we ought never to forget the year 1727. 
For then, we having stood three years, through the Divine indul- 
gence and patience, I conceived the Divine mind concerning us 
was to be gathered out of that passage in Luke xiii. 7. 2 But 
then that very night, after those solemn warnings of God's 
word, came the Great Earthquake. But then on the next 
Lord's day (I think) I preached upon the words next follow- 
ing : ' Lord, let it alone this year also ' (as, when the year 
came about, I did on those words, ' If not, then after that 
thou shalt/ etc.) ; and how wondrously God has accordingly 
borne with us ! And what an assurance of God's goodness was 
the sparing my life, 8 and recovering me to my work when I was 
visited once and again with both fever and rheumatism ! Let 
me never forget those benefits towards me ! 

" We must acknowledge with great thankfulness that we have 
had sundry very valuable outward mercies, which we ought not 
to overlook. In special, we have not only enjoyed much health 
all along, in this place, compared with some other towns, but we 
have also had, as far as has come to my knowledge for most of 
the years past, the favor of considerable peace ; and God has 
blessed you with no contemptible temporal enlargements and 
substance. 

1 The word " then " is inserted as an after-thought in the margin, as 
though the present trouble, resulting in the division of the town, were on 
his mind. 

2 " Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and 
find none : cut it down," etc. 

8 In 1729. 



AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON. 1 29 

" And as to what is much the most worthy of our notice and 
observance, the internal influences of the Divine Spirit and 
grace, we have not, as I humbly judge, been altogether without 
some good tokens hereof (though it is matter of great grief and 
mourning, as we shall hereafter more positively say, that there 
have been no more signs of grace and conversion among us). 
As we have been favored with the external means of grace, 
though most undeserving, so there have been, at several times, 
some movings of the Spirit of God among us. But as to the 
outward tokens thereof, by persons joining to the church, I have 
not been very fond of promoting and countenancing great mul- 
titudes of these, when it has been plain to me either that it has 
been very much out of form, or when they have been too raw 
and unqualified, as being too unexperienced in the practical and 
spiritual part of religion, or not been so much as indoctrinated 
and instructed in the necessary principles of Christianity ; but 
yet, sometimes we have had five or six together. ... At or 
about two of those seasons in which we principally had awaken- 
ings among us, we had religious societies set up among us. 
Presently after the earthquake (besides the young men's society) 
the Family meeting was constituted ; and in the year '41 there 
were (I suppose) no less than seven different societies in town, 
of old and young, of one sex and the other, who from time to 
time used to meet for religious worship. But in very truth, the 
external form and bodily exercise profiteth little; it is the Spirit 
that giveth life. This is what God would freely give, did we but 
duly ask. . . ." 

It would have been gratifying if this discourse had 
dealt more largely in the facts of the history of the 
twenty years; but that would not have been in accord 
with the prevailing ideas of the demands of sermons and 
of the house of God. It seems to us most singular of 
all that, inasmuch as it was written only a week after the 
division of the town into north and south precincts, it 
should make no definite allusion to that event. The 
explanation doubtless is that the subject was too deli- 

9 



130 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

cate, and the feeling too sore to allow safe allusions. 
But however meagre in historical data, the sermon is of 
no slight value as furnishing a glimpse into the life and 
thought of the time, and the considerations which took 
strongest hold of men's feeling. There has been much 
change since then, — knowledge has vastly increased ; 
but the fidelity and reverence of those days was the 
good soil out of which our best fruit has grown. 



CHAPTER X. 

1744-1766. 

THE FIRST PRECINCT. 

WE have seen that from the 20th of October, 1744, 
the town was divided into two precincts, of which 
the first and southernmost corresponded essentially to the 
present town of Westborough. Each precinct managed 
its own affairs and constituted a parish by itself; but both 
assembled for town-meetings alternately in the meeting- 
houses of the two sections. The whole town, at the time 
of the division, contained one hundred and twenty-five 
families, of whom only thirty-eight were set off in the 
second precinct, leaving eighty-seven in the first. 

The first precinct held its first meeting Jan. 3, 1745, to 
appoint precinct officers and to take measures to retain 
Mr. Parkman as minister, — that is, as the minister of the 
first precinct, and no longer of the town. He at first 
would hear nothing of it, charging that his contract, 
which was made with the whole town, was " shocked and 
violated " by the doings of the precinct meeting. He 
had come, in the first year of his manhood, to be the 
minister of Westborough ; he had lived with them all, and 
shared their prosperity and adversity, until he was now in 
the prime of life and the full activity of his powers ; and 
the thought of losing an important part of his parish, and 
becoming the minister of a mere section, was intolerable. 
But when at a second meeting, held the 22d of January, 
the people of the first precinct unanimously requested him 



132 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

to remain their pastor, voted to pay his salary from Oct. 
20, 1744, — the date of the division of the town, — and sent 
a committee to consult him as to the amount they should 
allow him for damages in case the meeting-house should 
be removed, he was greatly mollified. On February 8th 
they voted to give him £500, " old tenor," if the meeting- 
house should be removed more than three quarters of 
a mile from his house, so that he should be obliged to 
move, and to pay him ^55 in bills " of the new tenor, not 
soldier money," as stated salary. To this he subsequently 
agreed, and so the compact was renewed, which was to 
last for thirty-seven years longer. 

In May, 1746, the process of division was farther carried 
forward by an ecclesiastical separation. Capt. James Eager 
had given a lot of land for a meeting-house in the north 
parish, situated a little westward of the site of the pres- 
ent old meeting-house in Northborough. Thereupon 
five brethren asked to be dismissed from the church, 
and five others from the same section, in conjunction 
with the deacons, called for a church meeting, in view 
of the serious matters pressing upon them, which was 
solemnly held on the 7th of May, "to consider God's 
great mercy to us in bringing us into a church state, 
and his glorious patience and goodness in continuing us 
to this day;" and "to bewail our unfaithfulness to God 
and to each other under our high and holy character, 
and under our sacred obligations, — manifest in our 
unfruitfulness, deadness, carnality, and worldly-minded- 
ness ; " and more to the same effect. 

And now, as in the first organization of a church, the 
brethren go alone into the new body; not until August 
are any of the women dismissed, and then with a rather 
ungallant proviso " that something be inserted in their 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 1 33 

dismission touching their delinquency, which we have 
observed of late, with an Exhibition and Caution to them 
respecting ye time to come." 

Those who remained in the old church had now to con- 
sider the question of adapting themselves to the new state 
of affairs. The meeting-house was in the extreme north 
of their area, and inconvenient for many of them. Yet 
the attachment to old landmarks, and the private rights 
of ownership in the building, served to avert any change 
for a year or two longer. The precinct had definitely re- 
fused, in May, 1745, to find its geographical centre or to 
build a new meeting-house. Thus matters remained until 
the beginning of 1748, when there was a proposal made 
to build a new meeting-house " on the Great Road within 
30 rods of the Burying Place, easterly of said Burying 
Place." This was temporarily refused ; but measures were 
taken to find the centre of the precinct, and in April it 
was voted to build " on the north side of the Cuntry road 
where there is now a Pine Bush grows, about twenty-five 
or thirty rods easterly from the Burying Place in said 
Precinct." This burying-place was the old cemetery, 
opposite the present town- hall; and the meeting-house 
still stands near its original site, and is familiarly known 
as " The Old Arcade." Edward Baker, Thomas Forbush, 
Dea. Josiah Newton, Francis Whipple, and Abner New- 
ton constituted the building committee. In December, 
£600, old tenor, was appropriated toward the building. 
A piece of land five rods long and eight wide was pur- 
chased in January, 1749, of Nathan Brigham, of South- 
borough. The house was to be fifty feet long by forty 
wide, with posts twenty-three feet high. In April it was 
ready for the raising; and accordingly the precinct voted, 
on the 17th, "to provide Half a barrel of Roum, by the 



134 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

cost and charge of the precinct, for the Raising the 
frame of the meeting-house which the precinct voted to 
build. . . . Voted, Capt. John Maynard, Lieut. Simeon 
Taintor, Lieut. Abijah Bruce to be a committee to take 
care to provide the Roum for raising the frame of the 
meeting-house. . . . Voted, to underpin the sils of the 
meeting-house." They also refused to take down the old 
house and use the material in the new one. 

Four months later the opposition to taking down the 
old house was so far overcome that a vote was passed, 
August io, with four " decents," to take it down, "and use 
and improve so much of the boards, nails, glass, and tim- 
ber of the s d old meeting-house in closing and finishing 
the s d new meeting-house as will be profitable to s d pre- 
cinct; the interest and property of particular men in 
their several and respective pews in s d old meeting-house 
excepted. Voted to take the pulpit and ministerial pew, 
and set them up in the new house. Voted to take the old 
meeting-house down at or before the second Monday of 
Sept. next ensuing." 

The first meeting was held in the new house the 3d of 
September, according to Mr. Parkman's Diary, — a sheer 
necessity, probably, from the demolition of the old one, 
for it could not have been more than barely covered in. 
On the 15 th it was voted to sell the glass of the old house 
and so much of the timber as was not used. 

Mr. Parkman still lived in the parsonage beside the site 
of the old meeting-house, a little more than a mile away 
from the new one. On Sundays he had not time to go 
home for his lunch between services, — which was a great 
inconvenience; and as it was hardly consistent with the 
dignity that pertained to the office to carry it with him 
and eat it in the meeting-house, and as no one offered to 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 135 

invite him in, he was obliged, evidently, to pay for his 
meal, for he petitioned the precinct to assume the expense, 
and at a meeting on the 28th of November it refused the 
request. He next requested, very properly, that the pre- 
cinct would carry into effect its vote of Feb. 8, 1745, prom- 
ising him, in case the meeting-house were removed more 
than three quarters of a mile from his house, the sum of 
^500, old tenor, to enable him to move. But, as usual, 
the event showed that it was much easier to vote a sum of 
money long in advance, when they were anxious to induce 
the minister to stay, than to pay it when called for ; for at 
a meeting held Jan. 15, 1750, the precinct curtly refused 
to " put the ,£500 into a rate to enable him to move his 
habitation to the new house, or to make provision for his 
moving in any other way." But he insisted that the pre- 
vious vote was binding, and a meeting was called a fort- 
night later, which, with the exasperating slowness of the 
time, adjourned another fortnight, and then, with a bad 
grace, faced the necessity and put the money into a rate. 
Meantime, in January, the neighbors had met to break 
ground for his new house " on the south road," near the 
new meeting-house, — the spot now occupied by the resi- 
dence of the late Dr. William Curtis. The frame was not 
raised, however, till the 7th of September following, and the 
building progressed very slowly. But the work was done 
thoroughly, if not rapidly; for the house, afterward owned 
and occupied by Judge Brigham, is still standing, just 
beyond the High Street school-house. It was evidently 
considered a fine house, even somewhat extravagant, at 
the time, and there were not wanting those who found 
fault with the parson for his ambition to have as good a 
house as anybody. One day in June, 175 1, as he rode 
down to inspect the windows and doors, which had just 



136 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

arrived, he was sharply rallied by Lieutenant Taintor about 
the pride of ministers, because his window-frames were so 
large. " And although I rebuked him," says the worthy 
divine nai'vely, " for thus speaking, especially as there 
were many persons present, yet I was disturbed thereat; 
and the frames were larger than I had intended, and I 
would rather they had been smaller." 

In the following August he remarks in his Diary that he 
is obliged to move at once, although the house is unfit to 
be occupied, — the hearth is unlaid, the banks of gravel on 
each side of the door are unlevelled, and moreover there 
is no pasture for a cow, and no grass or hay for the horse. 
But move he must; and the register, less reticent than he, 
tells us why. We find that he moved in on the 20th, and 
that on the 22d a child Samuel appeared upon the scene, 
keeping up the regular succession, which for more than 
twenty years hardly failed to bring a new life into the par- 
sonage once in two years. The family was becoming nu- 
merous by this time, — Samuel was the twelfth child ; 1 and 
though two or three had died, there was need of consider- 
able house-room. Eben, as his father called him, was now 
a young man of twenty-four, and, to the regret of his par- 
ents, did not take kindly to a life of study, but obtained 
their reluctant consent to become a farmer. There is 
little or no light on the family life during all these years. 
Mr. Parkman was busy with his parish and his farm, and 
Mrs. Parkman did not find time to keep a journal. There 
were four girls ; two others had died. Mary, the eldest, was 
now twenty-six ; Susannah, the youngest, was six. Thomas 
was only two years younger than Eben ; William was a 
restive boy of ten, of whom his father has to record that 
" Mr. Solomon Wood, Tything man, complains of [his] 

1 He was the donor of the town bell in 1801. 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 1 37 

rudeness at church." There are besides two baby boys of 
two and four years, and now the new-comer. For some 
time there must have been great inconvenience in the 
unfinished house, and much to do to keep house and farm 
and parish in order. Mr. Parkman kept his stock for some 
time on his old place, riding back and forth daily. 

But if the minister's house grew slowly, the meeting- 
house crept toward completion at snail's pace. Although 
the first meeting had been held there in September, 1749, 
just after the old house was torn down, we find the precinct 
voting, three years later, in December, 1752, " to build the 
pulpit and ministerial pew, the gallery stairs, floors, and 
breastwork of the galleries, and to sell the pews ; the 
highest payer in the two [?] years they were building to 
have the first choice. Chose a committee to mark out the 
pews and to dignify and set a price upon each pew. Voted 
that the pew room on the floor next the walls, and the room 
where the four hind seats should be, shall be called Pew- 
Room." Feb. 6, 1753, they voted to sell no pew-spot to 
non-residents; on the 12th they held the sale. Twenty -two 
pew-spots were sold, and the record of the sale is extant; 
so that it is not difficult to re-seat the old meeting-house 
as it was in the year of grace 1753. The house itself was 
fifty feet by forty; the front door was on the south side, 
toward the street, which was one of the longer sides ; the 
pulpit was opposite ; there were also doors on the east 
and west ends. The pews were arranged round the walls, 
except in the two corners on the street, where were stair- 
cases leading to the galleries, — one for the women on 
the north side, and one for the men on the south. The 
centre was occupied by two rows of benches, — one for 
the men, and one for the women. The centre aisle was 
five feet wide ; the two side alleys and the rear alley were 



138 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

three and a half feet; the alley before the pulpit was 
three feet nine inches " from ye deacons' seat." 
Pew-spots were purchased as follows : — 

" Capt. John Maynard ; pew in hind seats on right hand of 
the alley. 

Jeduthun Fay ; Pew-spot on right hand of ministerial pew. 

Jonas Brigham ; on left hand of alley in men's seats, next 
the alley. 

Ja s . Grout ; second pew spot on right of east door. 

Benj. Fay ; second pew spot on left of west door. 

Edward Baker ; third pew spot on left of pulpit. 

Dea. Josiah Newton ; first on left of pulpit. 

Jonathan Bond ; second on left of pulpit. 

Samuel Harrington ; second on right hand of front door. 

James Maynard; between east door and the women's stairs. 

Ensign Jas. Miller ; in hind seats on left hand on men's side. 

Charles Rice ; on left hand west door. 

Timothy Warren ; in north-east corner of meeting-house. 

Widdo Vashty Newton ; in hind seats on right hand, next 
women's door. 

Jonah Warren ; on right hand of east door. 

Hezekiah Howe ; right hand west door, next men's stairs. 

Nathaniel Whitney ; third spot on right hand front door, next 
women's stairs. 

David Maynard ; northwest corner of meeting house. 

Eliezer Rice ; third spot on left hand front door, next women's 
stairs. 

Lieut. Abijah Bruce ; second spot on left hand front door. 

Lieut. Stephen Maynard ; first spot on right hand front door. 

Jonathan Forbush, Jr. ; first on left hand front door (sold to 
E. Parkman)." 

The accompanying floor-plan will help in understanding 
the arrangement. The pew-spots were sold at a price 
ranging from £1 6s. Sd. to £5 12s. gd. 

Still the completion of the house lingered. In March 
it was voted " to lath and plaster overhead," and in July 



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THE FIRST PRECINCT. 139 

to do the same under the gallery floors. In November 
it was voted to provide materials and " finish the meeting- 
house." But it still remained unpainted, and in June, 
1754, the precinct solemnly refused to "Culler the out- 
side of the meeting-house," or to paint the breastwork of 
the galleries, but did allow itself to be overcome by the 
clamor for pomps and vanities to the extent of painting 
the pulpit. There was an article in the warrant for a 
meeting, Jan. 19, 1755, "To see if this Precinct will grant 
ye petition of Surviah Thurston, Persis Rice, Dinah For- 
bush, and others, who pray that they may have Liberty 
to hang a dore and set banesters on ye hind seat on ye 
women's side in ye long gallery in our meeting-house, and 
injoy it for their seat in s d meeting-house." Whether the 
petition was granted does not appear. 

At last, in March, 1755, a committee was appointed to 
"seat ye meeting-house; " and it was voted "that ye aged 
Fathers should be seated according to their age, and ye 
next set of men according to their age and pay, and by 
ye last Invoice with one head." So, after long delay, the 
first precinct was furnished for business so far as regards 
ecclesiastical relations. There was still one exception, in 
the case of the ministerial land, which continued to be the 
subject of dispute and litigation until it was sold, in 1784. 
But the house was ready for all needs, and the minister 
was on the ground, in a new and better house than he had 
before ; and the points of difference between north and 
south precincts were chiefly in other directions. 

Some minor changes, of considerable importance at the 
time, were adopted in the services of the new meeting- 
house. Chief among them was a change which sounds 
strange to us of to-day, — the Scriptures began to be 
read in church. It is a remarkable fact that until near 



140 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

this time the colonial churches were not in the habit of 
having the Bible read in public worship. It had been 
read, according to Hutchinson, for some years in Boston, 
but the custom was afterward discontinued. Sermons 
might be one or even two hours long without offence ; 
prayers were not noted for brevity; the execrable singing 
took up a good deal of time : but the Scripture was alto- 
gether omitted. The reason of the omission must doubt- 
less be found in the violent recoil from everything that 
marked the customs of the Church of England, — a recoil 
so extreme as to lead in many instances to absolute ab- 
surdity. Two considerations help us to understand this 
fanaticism. In the first place, the separatists had endured 
much trial and suffering in their struggle for liberty of 
worship, and the church which had persecuted them was 
sincerely believed by some of them to be in league with 
Satan. And furthermore, the human mind always has to 
make a strenuous effort to tear itself away from ancient 
custom and provide for itself a new environment. It is a 
phenomenon still observed with great frequency that those 
who feel themselves forced to change from one form of 
belief to another usually become more radical in the new 
faith than those who have been born and bred in it. 

So it is a mark of progress toward a calmer view of the 
necessities and proprieties of worship that on the 18th of 
September, 1748, Mr. Parkman records as follows: "We 
this day began the public reading of Scriptures. In the 
morning, after prayer, before singing, I read the first chap- 
ter of Genesis, and in the afternoon the first chapter of 
Mark." Of course where Bible reading savored in the 
minds of the people of ritualism, the observance of church 
festivals was looked upon with horror as a leaning toward 
popery itself. In the Laws of Massachusetts, published in 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 141 

1672, the observance of any such day as Christmas was 
classed with dancing, playing shuffle-board, bowling, play- 
ing cards or dice, and was punishable by a fine of five 
shillings. This was afterward repealed, but the observ- 
ance of Christmas did not thereby become popular. In 
Shute's governorship the General Court, with unneces- 
sary obstinacy, met on Christmas Days, in spite of the 
Governor's churchly proclivities. He refused to attend; 
whereupon Judge Sewall said the Court could pass bills 
on that day anyway, and the Governor might sign them 
when he pleased. 

A note of the same conflict appears in Westborough 
about the time we are now considering. There is an un- 
wonted acidity in the point of the minister's pen in a re- 
cord made on Christmas Day, 1750: "I hear that several 
of my neighbors, particularly Eliezer Rice and his wife, 
are trapseing off to Hopkinton to keep Christmas there. 
Were any of them rationally and sincerely enquiring and 
examining into the grounds of the controversy between 
Prelatists and Dissenters, it were a different case; but they 
manifest only a spirit of unsteadiness." It happened that 
the next year Rice had a child to baptize ; and of course 
the matter of his soundness came under discussion. It 
appeared on examination that he was below the mark in 
regard to the doctrine of original sin; that he sturdily 
denied, not only the imputation of Adam's sin, but the 
corruption of mankind as the result of it. Mr. Parkman, 
to his honor, was extremely kind, — labored with the delin- 
quent faithfully, and was willing to make any concessions 
which seemed to him reasonable, in order to perform 
the baptism; but Rice was rather stubborn, and at last 
the matter came before the church. Mr. Rice stated that 
" though not utterly denying the imputation of Adam's 



142 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

sin to his posterity, yet he was apter to disbelieve it ; " 
after which happy characterization of a laboring and un- 
certain mind, he was admonished to inform himself more 
fully on " those doctrines which he appeared to be so 
much in the dark about," and the matter was laid over. 
At a subsequent meeting the church refused to allow 
the baptism. 

The question of church music, which the pastor had 
taken so vigorously in hand twenty years before, began 
to break out with its chronic disorder again in 1752. This 
time it seems that there were those who desired to im- 
prove on the minister's improvement, which would not 
do ; so the church came to the rescue, and voted that 
they " were satisfied in the pastor's having desired Bro. 
Ed d Whipple to set the Tune, and in the Tunes which 
we have been wont to sing in this congregation." 

In May, 1752, the church gave a letter of dismission to 
Eli Forbush, son of Dea. Jonathan Forbush, who left to 
organize a new church " in the northeast part of Brook- 
field," over which he was to be pastor; and the church 
shortly afterward assisted at his ordination. This was the 
beginning of the First Church of North Brookfield. 

The year 1755 was long remembered in New England 
as the year of the great earthquake, which occurred on 
the 27th of March. Probably it was the most severe ever 
known in this region. Chimneys were thrown down every- 
where; the ends of brick buildings fell, as far down as 
the eaves; springs which had long fed wells were stopped, 
and new ones were opened ; and the people were every- 
where greatly terrified. Mr. Parkman says that in West- 
borough " it shook the house exceedingly, tossing and 
wrecking as if all nature would fall into pieces." This, 
like its predecessor of 1727, was looked upon by all the 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 143 

people as a direct visitation of God, and for years after- 
ward faithfully " improved " by the ministers in their 
appeals to their congregations. 

It was some time before the relations between the two 
precincts were satisfactorily adjusted. Next to the meeting- 
house, the question of schools required careful handling. 
The bounds of three districts had been at least temporarily 
fixed in 1742, when the matter of division was only in the 
air. But ten years later, at the March town-meeting in 
1752, when the project of building a school-house for a 
grammar-school was broached, a process of obstruction 
began which lasted for more than a dozen years. At that 
meeting it was voted " that they would Buld two Scool 
houses, and that they would set them as Near to the two 
meeting houses as they convenitly can ; " but a month later, 
owing probably to a desire to force the second precinct to 
build its own school-house, the town refused " to proceed 
to build the two school-houses." The result of that was 
that the town, having more than one hundred families, was 
again under presentment for not having a grammar-school. 
Thereupon it was voted " that the North precinct should 
be set off to be a district by themselves, if they see cause." 
But in the following April the town refused to let the 
second precinct draw money for its schools out of the 
common treasury; and the question was hung up again 
indefinitely. It recurred in 1756 and in 1758, resulting 
always in the same vote, — "Refused to build two school- 
houses." And it was not until 1765 that sufficient advance 
was made to appoint a committee to " squadron the town 
for school purposes, and regulate the length of school 
in each." This was the beginning of the school district 
system; each district or "squadron" was to determine, by 
majority vote, in what part of its section the school should 



144 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

be kept. The two school-houses for the whole town were 
never built. 

The area of the south precinct had been increased a 
little during these years ; three farms from the northwest 
part of Upton (which was incorporated in 1735) having 
been added in 1754, and four from Shrewsbury applying 
for admission in 1762. The town voted to receive "the 
Shrewsbury corner families," if they would build a road 
from their houses to the great road that goes to Grafton. 
These farms were annexed by Act of the General Court 
on the 4th of June, 1762. That the town exercised 
some discrimination in the reception of new territory is 
apparent from a vote passed in April, 1754, when the 
three farms from Upton were admitted, refusing to re- 
ceive Zebulon Rice and Eben Miller, of Upton, with 
their lands, as inhabitants of Westborough. The reason 
is not assigned. 

In 1755 a new pound being required, one was ordered 
to be built of stones, and to be twenty-eight feet square 
within the walls. It stood near the present site of Bates' 
straw shop. In 1757 the " burying-place " was enlarged 
by the exchange of a piece of ground with Mr. Park- 
man, and the gift of " a litel strip of land " from Stephen 
Maynard. In 1759 it was voted "to fence the Burying 
place with a good four Rail fence on three sides, and the 
frunt on the Rhode with a good four feet wall." 

The pauper question was beginning to assume larger 
proportions as the town increased in size, and the ex- 
pense of boarding out those who were dependent became 
a troublesome item in town meeting. The reluctance to 
do any more than was necessary for these incompetents 
did not lessen. There is a vote recorded in 1758 which 
modern overseers of the poor would sometimes like to 



THE FIRST PRECINCT. 1 45 

follow in certain perplexing cases which our laws do not 
fully provide for; namely, that they would not appropri- 
ate a penny to support the wife of John Maynard, but that 
they would take measures to oblige John to support his 
own wife; and for that they granted two pounds. 

About 1763 a memorandum was begun in the town- 
records of persons warned out of the town limits accord- 
ing to law, to prevent their acquiring a residence, when 
it seemed likely that they might become dependent on 
the town. In the course of two or three years this list 
included thirty-eight names, many of them being those 
of heads of families. In 1765 it was voted to build a 
workhouse ; and two years later a small building, thirty 
feet by sixteen, and one story high, was erected on land 
owned by Timothy Warren, at a cost of £26 i$s. ^d. In 
1770 George Andrews, Timothy Warren, and Abijah Gale 
were chosen first overseers of the poor, and it was voted 
that the workhouse should be regulated according to law. 
This disposed of the question for twenty years. 

The history of the first precinct comes to an end in 
1766, when the second precinct is incorporated as the 
town of Northborough, and the first becomes the town of 
Westborough, with its present boundaries. A division of 
common property was made by the selectmen of the two 
towns, with the exception of the ministerial lot, which 
remained a matter of dispute for eighteen years longer. 
The town had grown considerably during the process of 
division; for while in 1744 there were only one hundred 
and twenty-five families in the whole town, in 1767 West- 
borough had one hundred and twenty families, and North- 
borough eighty-two. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1755-1772. 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. — BEGINNINGS OF 
THE REVOLUTION. — CHURCH MUSIC AGAIN. 

THE eight years from 1755 to 1763 were full of public 
excitements and dangers. The long struggle be- 
tween English and French for the possession of the broad 
lands of the New World was passing through its culmina- 
tion. The draft upon the Colonies to furnish men and 
money for this struggle, which came to be known as " the 
French and Indian War " par excellence, was very severe. 
Massachusetts had put seven thousand men in the field in 
1757, and was financially ruined. Not a town but must 
have felt the strain to be severe. There are, however, 
no records of the time in Westborough which throw 
any light on the part taken by the town in the eight 
years' struggle ; Capt. Benjamin Fay and Capt. Bezaleel 
Eager are said to have been in command of companies, 
but there are no muster-rolls which give their men. 
There is a roll in the State archives of a company in a 
regiment sent to Crown Point in 1755, under command 
of Col. Josiah Brown, of which one John Fay was cap- 
tain, 1 containing three men from Southborough, six from 
Grafton, ten from Shrewsbury, ten from Marlborough, six 
from Upton, five from Uxbridge, and six from West- 

1 If this John Fay was a Westborough man, he must have been the 
grandson of the original John Fay (who died Jan. 5, 1748), and was at this 
time only twenty years old. 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 1 47 

borough. The names of the Westborough men are else- 
where given as John Butler, Joseph Hudson, Henry 
Gashett, John Caruth, Adam Fay, and Thaddeus Warren. 
Charles Rice, of Westborough, is enrolled in 1755 in a 
company commanded by John Taplin. This was in the 
very beginning of the war; and there were frequent levies 
afterward, until the young men had very generally ob- 
tained an opportunity to smell powder in the campaign. 

In the absence of direct statements and statistics, we 
have, in a sermon of Mr. Parkman's, a very good impres- 
sion of the general feeling at the time, and the anxieties 
and burdens which were testing the fibre of the people. 
The sermon is in print, and a copy is in the library of 
Harvard College. It was a special sermon, preached at 
Southborough May 15, 1757, and dedicated as follows: 

" To the Rev. Mr. Nathan Stone, Pastor, and to the flock of 
Christ in Southborough, the ensuing plain Composure, but such 
as it is, in testimony of hearty gratitude for the kind acceptance 
of his occasional labors among them, is humbly inscribed by 
their affectionate soul-friend and humble servant, the Author." 

Its title is quaint enough : " Reformers and Interces- 
sors Sought by God, Who Grieves when they are Hard to 
be Found, as exhibited and applied in a plain but serious 
Discourse on Ezek. 22, ver. 30." The text reads : " And 
I sought for a man among them, that should make up the 
hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that 
I should not destroy it: but I found none." The whole 
sermon is quaint, and not lacking in force and pungency; 
it has five heads, as follows : — 

" I. God is not o' mind to destroy the land of his peculiar 
covenant people, for whom he has had very special regard. 

" II. Gap-men, Reformers, and Intercessors are of great ser- 
vice to prevent the desolating judgments of God. 



I48 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

" III. When God sees destruction coming upon his people 
and upon the land he has peculiar regard to, he looks for a 
Gap-man that may prevent it. 

" IV. But he sometimes finds such are scarce. It is here said 
he found none. 

" V. When it is so, he laments it." 

There follows some discourse on the character of " gap- 
men," their influence as intercessors, etc., " as argued from 
the Scriptures and the nature of the Divine Being." Per- 
haps it is necessary to explain now, as it was not at the 
time, that the men he has chiefly in view as " gap-men 
and intercessors " are the ministers of the churches. Mr. 
Parkman belonged to what was, even in his own day, the 
old regime, — the Puritanism of the time of the first char- 
ter, which made the church the basis of civil society, and 
its ministers the most important men in the Common- 
wealth. And it must be said that he lent honor to his 
calling, even on this high estimate of it. 

The " application " of the sermon is a sample of the 
preaching for the times which was in vogue at that day. 
It also is divided into five heads, of which the last is 
subdivided into two : — 

" 1. We are ourselves, here in this land, in covenant with God. 

" 2. Sin has made an awful breach, and opened a wide and 
horrible gap, at which all happiness is ready to depart, and 
numberless evils to rush in ; so that we stand in great need of 
reformers and intercessors. 

" 3. Does God ever seek those who will make up the hedge, 
and stand in the gap before him, for the land ? 

" 4. The number is too small, and many are dying. 1 We 
may fear what God will permit the savages, with their insidious 
instigators to do in our sinning New England, when the Pious 
intercessors are removed. 

1 This is a reference to the fact that " many ministers have lately 
deceased." 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. I49 

" 5. What reason we have to fear on account of our exposed- 
ness to Divine Resentments at this very time. 

" (a) As God's indignation has been poured out already in 
a variety of judgments upon us, and which, divers of them, are 
now upon us, so he will consume us with the fire of his wrath 
kindled up in the war we are so distressed by, and by other sore 
judgments which threaten, unless there is some suitable altera- 
tions among us. [This he illustrates at length from the history 
of the destruction of the Jews, and then proceeds.] Our sins 
are now nearly ripe. The kingdoms of Europe are greatly 
moved. Our own land is one of the principal theatres for ac- 
tion. The whole Protestant cause is in danger. He may suffer 
the anti-christian adversaries, aided by the hideous monsters of 
the wood, literally blood-thirsty, and whose even tender mercy 
is cruelty itself, to prevail over us. [This is still farther illus- 
trated from the fate of the ancient churches.] 

" (b) We are as stubble before this fiery indignation and 
wrath on account of our sins. [After this has been sufficiently 
dwelt upon, he ends the discourse by a few " closing incite- 
ments."] First, To the careless, impious, and flagitious, there 
is little to be said ; the greater part of them, there is reason to 
fear, will be swept away in the flood of Divine indignation, and 
will be made eternal monuments of his unquenchable wrath. 
Secondly, To those more susceptible. Open your eyes ; see 
immoralities abound ; vices of all kinds ; principles esteemed 
very bad until now ; pernicious sentiments in religion. God is 
sure to execute his judgments. Think of what may be when our 
foes sweep us away ! Homes burned, houses of God burned or 
turned into Mass houses or temples for paganish rites, to the 
honor or great rejoicing of the Devil ; calamities on the feeble 
and defenceless, the aged and sick, on women and children ! 

" What a welcome you will have at the throne of grace on 
such an errand of intercession ! And may n't it tend to the 
Divine glory ? " 

It is easy to see what a profound impression such a ser- 
mon would make at a time of great fear and excitement, 
upon those who were taught to consider every public 
danger and calamity as a direct indication of the fierce 



150 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

wrath of the God of whom they were sore afraid. To 
us it is interesting both as a sample of the way in which 
Mr. Parkman exercised the function of the prophet, and 
still more as a mark of the feeling of the time, and the 
strain under which the people lived during the contest 
with Catholic France for the possession of the Western 
valleys. Not a little was added to the burden of anxiety 
for the success of the English arms, and the heavier bur- 
dens of intolerable taxation and of the peril of sons and 
brothers at the front, by the religious conceptions of the 
Puritan age and the unspeakable dread of subjection to 
the domination of Rome. 

Mr. Parkman preached the annual sermon before the 
Convention of Ministers of the Province of Massachusetts 
Bay in New England in Boston, on the 28th of May, 1761, 
in which he alluded to " the remarkable success of our 
arms " [Wolfe's decisive victory had been won a year and 
a half before] ; " but especially the happy accession of His 
most sacred Majesty King George the Hid to the British 
throne," as " tokens of the Divine favor to constrain min- 
isters to be more diligent in his service." 

It is to be feared that there is a mild touch of syco- 
phancy in that last allusion, due to the presence in the 
Boston of that day of so many of His Majesty's retainers. 
But it was a great honor to the Westborough minister to 
be invited to preach the Convention sermon, and his heart 
was full of good-will. This is the first reference to the 
famous Anniversary week, which became afterward such 
a characteristic New England institution. It is to be 
hoped, though without over-confidence, that when Mr. 
Parkman preached it did not rain. 

We have now arrived at a period which was to test to 
the utmost the quality of the yeomen of these western 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION. 151 

farms of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. George III. 
began his reign in October, 1760. The events immedi- 
ately following did not reassure those who, for the greater 
part of their lives, like their fathers for a century pre- 
vious, had been struggling under the burden of unjust 
taxation and of laws that discriminated against the Prov- 
ince. " The child Independence was born," said John 
Adams, "when, in 1761, James Otis, counsel for the 
British Admiralty, being ordered to defend the writs of 
Assistance, authorizing the searching of warehouses for 
goods that had not paid the prescribed duties, promptly 
resigned his office, and appeared in defence of the people, 
saying, ' To my dying day I will oppose, with all the 
power and faculties God has given me, all such instru- 
ments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the 
other.' " 

In March, 1765, was passed the odious Stamp Act, 
making all paper illegal for business purposes and printing 
which had not certain stamps affixed, the sale of which 
was to bring the Government rich revenue. As soon as 
the action became known, the greatest excitement pre- 
vailed ; and before the time had arrived for the Act to 
become law, the opposition to it was so well organized 
that it was never enforced. 

In Boston, on the 14th of August, a crowd of rebels 
thronged the streets, hanged Andrew Oliver, the revenue 
officer, in effigy, and forcibly entered his house. The 
news of the disturbance spread like wildfire. There was 
sympathy with the rioters in the back towns as well as 
on the seaboard. Mr. Parkman attended a meeting of the 
Ministers' Association in Marlborough a few days later, 
where he says, " All the talk was of the Stamp Act riots 
in Boston, and the hanging of Mr. A. O. in effigy." 



152 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

In the October following the town gave some instruc- 
tions to its representative, Francis Whipple, the tenor of 
which was not likely to be misunderstood by His Majesty's 
servants. These instructions set forth, — 

That with all Humility, it is the opinion of the town that the 
Inhabitants of the Province have a Legal Claim to the Natural, 
Inherent, Constitutional Rights of Englishmen, Notwithstanding 
their Great Distance from Grate Britton ; and that the Stamp 
Act is an Infringement upon these Rights ; therefore we cannot 
be active in puting our Necks under such a Grevios Yoke ; and 
we think it proper in the present Conjunction of affairs to Give 
you, our Representative, the following Instructions, viz., That 
you promote, and Readily Join in all such Dutiful Remon- 
strances and humble Petitions to the King and Parliment, and 
other Desent measures as may have a tendency to obtain a Re- 
peal of the s d Stamp act ; and you are hereby Directed by no 
Means What So Ever, to do any thing that may aid the s d Stamp 
act in its operation, and you are hereby Directed to Dwo all in 
your power to Surpress and to prevente all Rioatus Assemblies 
and unlawful acts of Violence upon the Persons or Substance of 
any of his Majesty's Subjects ; and further more, you are hereby 
Instructed that you be not Aiding or assisting in Making any 
unusual Grants out of the Province Treasurie to Repear any 
Damiges which we of this Town had no hand in. 

(signed) Jonathan Bond, 

Moderator. 
To Francis Whipple, Representative. 

The temper of these instructions is admirable. No sub- 
mission to unjust oppression, no surrender of the rights 
of free-born Englishmen ; but, on the other hand, no mob- 
law, no rioting, nor — with a fine distinction — any paying 
for damages occurring through the riotous acts of others in 
which, whether sorry for them or not, the people of the 
town had no share. 

In November the church held a fast on account of the 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION. 1 53 

distress in the Colonies. The prospect was not cheering. 
Every one felt the pressure of the time. The next few 
months were heavy with foreboding. But on the 17th of 
May, 1766, just after the division between Westborough 
and Northborough was accomplished, the welcome news 
reached town that the detested Act was repealed, and there 
was great rejoicing. 

There are no important records of the town relating to 
the affairs of the Province- for the next six years, except 
that on the call for a convention of Massachusetts towns in 
Faneuil Hall in 1768, after Boston had refused to import 
any more British goods on account of newly imposed 
duties, Westborough responded promptly, and sent her 
leading man as delegate, — Capt. Stephen Maynard, 
afterward foremost in all military affairs ; and that not 
far from the same time the ministerial association of 
this vicinity held a fast in Westborough on account of 
the civil troubles. The next four years passed in com- 
parative quiet. 

Meantime the town was growing and prosperous. Not- 
withstanding the loss of the north precinct, the new meet- 
ing-house was already becoming too small. In September, 
1768, the town took measures to increase the seating 
capacity, " to make more room especially for the men, 
who are very much crowded." Think of that, in these 
days when from two thirds to three fourths of the attend- 
ants at church are women ! On the 14th of November 
the committee appointed made their report, which is 
worth preserving: — 

They are of opinion that ye Body of seats below be moved 
one foot forward, and that all ye seats Except ye foreseat be 
made three inches narrower, & take one foot out of ye alley 
behind ye Pews, either forward or Backward, that is before ye 



the comra. 



154 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

alley as ye owners shall chuse ; that taking the hind seat there 
will be Room for 4 pews more in ye Body of ye house, and that 
their be a pew built over ye stairs in ye men's side wide enough 
for 3 seats ; or as wide as a workman shall think will not dis- 
commode ye passing up and down ye stairs ; & that ye parting 
in ye front gallery be Removed into ye women's end so far as 
there may be Room for 3 persons to set in each seat. 
Westborough, Oct r ye 10th, 1768. 

Francis Whipple, 1 

Jon a Fay, 

Jon a Bond, 

Timothy Warrin, 

Ye above report was accepted. 

This was ingenious enough ; but it indicated that there 
had been some lack of foresight when the meeting-house 
was built, only ten years before, or it would not have 
been already crowded to its utmost capacity. In -the 
April following, the measures proposed by the committee 
were carried out; but the town continued to grow, and 
five years later more radical plans of enlargement were 
necessary. In 1772 a little relief was gained by the pro- 
vision " that ye women's front Gallery should be for ye 
men to sit in Except ye Front Pue, and to remove ye 
partition between ye men and women's seats to ye east 
end of ye women's seats." But this, though apparently 
leaving very little room for the women, was a very tem- 
porary relief; and the following year, in the midst of 
much public excitement concerning the affairs of the 
Province, the town chose " a Committy to Vue sum 
meeting houses that hav ben Cut in two & a pece put in 
ye meedel." The committee reporting favorably, " ye 
Town voted to split ye meeting house & put in 14 feet." 
It was farther voted to build three porches, and to 



CHURCH MUSIC AGAIN. 1 55 

repair where needful. In April the work was so far 
on foot as to require the usual vote that the committee 
"should provide the necessary drink for the workmen 
and those that assist when they move and raise those 
parts of the meeting house which are to be moved and 
raised, & provide liquor for the carpenters and workmen 
when they shall work at the meeting-house." Certain 
vain persons appear to have aspired to a steeple ; but 
that extravagance was rebuked by a very decided vote 
in June " not to build a steeple ; " and when those who 
desired it offered to be responsible for the expense, a 
still more emphatic answer was recorded in August that 
they would not have a steeple built free of cost to the 
town. The steeple was to come, but not till twenty- 
eight years afterward, when a bell was presented to them, 
and they must needs have a place to hang it. 1 

There is a way-mark of progress in the introduction, in 
1 77 1, of a change in the service of song in the house 
of the Lord. On the 24th of February the church 
voted, " by a great majority, to use that Version of ye 
Psalms which was set forth by Dr. Brady and Nahum 
Tate, Esq., with the Addition of as many of Dr. Watts' 
Hymns as can conveniently be obtained." Only three 
members of the church failed to vote on this occasion, — 
two, because they wished to wait and see what the congre- 
gation would say; and one, because "he knew nothing 
about it, having never seen one of them in his Life." On 
the 1 2th of May the congregation was informed of the 



1 The three porches built at this time, though long ago removed from 
the building, are still in existence. One of them was transformed into the 
house now occupied by Mrs. Wilson, on Boardman Street ; another into the 
house of Mr. Arnold, on Heath Street ; and the third into the small house 
on the grounds of the " Blake Place," on West Main Street. 



156 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

vote of the church, and concurred " by a silential vote." 
It was then ordered that objections, if there were any, 
should be brought in before the next Sabbath or the Sab- 
bath after. On the 27th of June the church, " that we 
might have peace and harmony, . . . condescended that 
the Congregation, males of ye age of 21 years, might have 
liberty " to vote in the choice of leaders ; and accordingly 
they proceeded to the radical step of electing four leaders 
to conduct the singing. 

This is the second step, and an important one, in the 
history of the musical contest. The first was taken forty 
years before, and has been already mentioned. That was 
the adoption of the use of a greater variety of tunes, and 
of written music ; since that time the psalm had been 
read, or " lined out," one line at a time, and the people 
had sung as best they could, but without much regard 
to time or melody. The present change was the enter- 
ing wedge of the much greater innovation which in due 
time introduced the choir. The adoption of the Tate 
and Brady version of the psalms, which had been pub- 
lished in England early in the century, but which a re- 
luctance to be indebted to English workmanship had 
kept out of use here hitherto, was an improvement in 
the quality of the psalmody ; and the introduction of 
some of Watts's hymns was a much greater step in ad- 
vance. But the most radical innovation of all was the 
appointment of four " leaders." It led in time to the 
disuse of the old custom of lining out, dear to the soul 
of many a deacon and clerk, and gallantly fought for in 
many a meeting-house in those days. The same step 
had been taken in Worcester the year before, and was 
part of a very general movement growing out of the 
increasing instruction and intelligence on the subject. 



CHURCH MUSIC AGAIN. 157 

These four men were to sit together and lead off in the 
singing. It was not long before they and some others 
grew extremely tired of waiting after the singing of every 
line for the clerk to read the next; so it came to pass 
that the next thing desired by the party of progress was 
the dispensing with the function of reader. It was 
achieved, however, as so many things are, by indirec- 
tion. It was seven years afterward that the first choir 
appeared in the Westborough meeting-house, and the 
innovation was indorsed by the following town-vote, re- 
commending " to those male persons who are disposed 
to sing the praises of God in publick to set as much 
together as they conveniently can, in ye men's front Gal- 
lery, without depriving those who usually set there of 
their places. And to those female persons who in like 
manner are disposed to sing, to set in ye women's front 
gallery for ye purpose aforesaid, and to Set there in a 
decent manner during ye town's pleasure." 

This action of 1778 seems to have been well up to the 
stage of progress then possible, and the permission to 
women as well as men to sing in the choir was in ad- 
vance of the prevailing custom. So far as the record 
shows, there was no serious opposition to the change. 
In 1 78 1 the west end of the men's gallery, as far as the 
alley, was appropriated " to those that were inclined to 
assist in the worship of singing on the Sabbath ; " and 
thus the church was fairly committed to the innovation 
of a choir. 



CHAPTER XII. 

1772-1780. 

IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 

THE year 1772 brought the affairs of the Colony to an 
alarming crisis. On the 2d of November Samuel 
Adams, in town-meeting in Boston, moved that a com- 
mittee of correspondence be appointed " to state the rights 
of the Colonists, and of the Province in particular, as men 
and Christians and as subjects; and to communicate and 
publish the same to the several towns and the world, as 
the sense of this town, with the infringements and viola- 
tions thereof which have been, or from time to time may 
be made." Two weeks later the committee, through James 
Otis, its chairman, reported in a clear and unequivocal 
document, the substance of which was issued in a circular 
letter to the towns, calling for an expression of their 
opinion and sentiments in regard to the common danger. 

The response that came in from town after town was 
like the running fire of musketry. Suffolk, Essex, Middle- 
sex, Worcester, Cape Cod, and the West spoke unani- 
mously by all their towns. Westborough was not behind 
in patriotism, as the following record shows : — 

At a Legal meeting of ye Freeholders & other Inhabitants 
of ye Town of Westborough, on Fryday, ye First Day of Janu y , 
1773, the following Vote passed (viz.), that a Committyof 7 men 
be chosen To take into Consideration ye Rights as Stated by 
ye Committee of Correspondence of ye Town of Boston, & ye 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 59 

Infringements and Violation of ye same, & to make Report at 
the Adjournment of this meeting (viz.), on Monday ye 4 Instant. 

S d Committy Taking into consideration ye State of ye Colo- 
nists, and of this province in particular, & a List of ye Infringe- 
ments & Violations of those Rights, & a Letter of Correspondence 
Voted by ye Freeholders & other Inhabitants of ye Town of 
Boston att their late Publick Town meeting, & by their Com- 
mittee of Correspondence Transmitted to this Town, — 

Having considered the Same, are of Opinion that the Rights 
of ye Colonists, & of this Province in perticuler, as men & as 
Subjects, are well Stated in s d List, as ye same are fully sup- 
ported & warranted by ye Laws of God & Nature & ye Royal 
Charter of this province. Under ye present critical and alarum- 
ing Situation of our publick affairs There is a loud call to Every 
one to awake from Security, & in Earnest strive to secure his 
Liberty, lest he politically perish. That as ye Oppressions com- 
plained of are of ye utmost consequence, & if not confronted 
will soon Termanate in ye Ruin of this Province, — Especially ye 
Extorting our moneys from us without our consent by our Selves 
or our Representative, & applying it to Uses which we Judge is 
determental to this Province, — it Appears Necessary that Every 
member of this Community, Quallified to vote in Town affairs, 
should at all times have a proper sense of them, more especially 
as ye Futer happiness of his Family, as well as him self, Depends 
Greatly on their being removed. For no Dought ware tyrany is 
Exercised, Opposition becoms a duty. As our fathers could, so 
can we plead our Loyalty ; we have been, and now are, Ready 
to spill our Dearest blood in Defence of our King, Religion, & 
Constitutional Laws. We cannot but look upon it a hard Trial, 
yea greater than we can bear, if we cannot [be said to] Give full 
proof of our Loyalty Otherwise than by sacrificing those Rights 
& Liberties which we prize beyond Life itself. Therefore ye 
Inhabitants of this Town do Declare it to the world that they 
are far from being Easy under ye many Infringements and In- 
tolarable Violations of those Rights and priveleges ; first, we 
Do therefore Instruct our Representitive, when in General Cort 
assembled, that he use his Influence in Soliciting his Excelancy, 
ye Governor of this province, that [he] Joyne unitedly with this 



160 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

province, that my Lord Dartmouth and our most Gracious Sov- 
erring may be fully acquainted with ye Real Uneasiness which 
so justly fills ye minds of us his most Loyal people. 

2iy, our Representitive is hereby instructed to unite in such 
measures as shall pleas ye Governor of this province & ye 
Judges of ye Superiour Corts of the province, upon a constitu- 
tional Basis, & make them a Sutable Provision for their support; 
and that Nothing more seems Needfully by us to be Don, but 
to Leve ye Instructions given to ye prudant Manigment of our 
Representitive ; Reposing our confidence in him, that he will 
exert himself at all times, with ye other members of s d Court, 
in such measures as may have a Tendency to ye obtaining a 
Redress of all such Grevences as are Justly complained of, & 
ye Procuring to this Loyal people ye peceful Enjoyments of 
their Just Rights. 

{Signed) Phineas Hardy, 

Chairman of ye Commity, 

Capt. Benj n Fay, Eben r Maynard, 
Dan l Forbes, Abij h Gale, 

Hananiah Parker, Dr. James Hawes. 

In 1774 measures were set on foot which resulted in 
the first Congress of the Colonies at Philadelphia in 
September. The General Court of Massachusetts ap- 
pointed its delegates, and authorized the payment to 
them of ^500 for expenses. This appropriation was of 
course vetoed by Governor Gage ; whereupon the Gen- 
eral Court, assembled at Salem June 17, sent out an ap- 
peal to the towns for the money. The share which fell to 
Westborough, and which was promptly paid, was £\ gs. id. 
Shortly afterward another appeal came from the people 
of Boston. Boston Harbor was blockaded, and the city 
in a state of siege. King George was trying " the heavy 
hand of power" to coerce the Colonies into obedience. 
The people appealed to their compatriots. 

" You, gentlemen," they said, " our friends, countrymen, and 
benefactors, may possibly look towards us at this crisis. We 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. l6l 

trust we shall not be left of Heaven to do any thing derogatory 
to our common liberties, unworthy the fame of our ancestors, or 
inconsistent with our former professions and conduct. Though 
surrounded with a large body of armed men, (who, having the 
sword, have also our blood on their hands,) we are yet undaunted : 
We trust in the God of our fathers, and we feel the animating 
support of a good cause ; but while suffering a Double weight 
of oppression, and exasperated by a military camp in the very 
bowels of our town, our minds are not more in a temper to delib- 
erate than our bodies in a situation to mo7>e, as the perils and 
exigencies of the times may probably demand. 

"To you, gentlemen, our brethren and dear companions in 
the cause of God and our country, we apply ; from you we have 
received the countenance and aid which have strengthened our 
hands, and that bounty which hath occasioned smiles on the 
face of distress : To you, therefore, we look for that wisdom, 
advice, and example which, giving strength to our understand- 
ing, and vigor to our actions, shall, with the blessing of God, 
save us from destruction." 

In response to such appeals as this, a Committee of Cor- 
respondence was appointed, consisting of Jonathan Bond, 
Daniel Forbes, Hananiah Parker, Dr. James Hawes, Lieu- 
tenant Baker, Thomas Bond, and Joseph Harrington. At 
the same meeting, June 17, 1774, the committee was in- 
structed to confer with the committees of the towns of 
the county at Worcester, " in this dark and distressing 
time of perplexity." 

Still more warlike was the appointment of committees 
to buy " a field-piece, a four-pounder," and four hundred 
weight of ball, with ten half-barrels of powder and five 
hundred weight of lead and flints ; and of another com- 
mittee to provision troops in case of an alarm. 

Then Capt. Stephen Maynard was appointed commander 
of all the soldiers in town in case of an alarm; the existing 
artillery companies were authorized, and their officers 



1 62 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

recognized by reappointment in town meeting; recruits 
were called for, and ordered to be armed and equipped 
as the law directed. Subscriptions were requested in ad- 
vance for arms and ammunition, and the response was 
prompt. Captain Maynard led off with a subscription of 
£22 10s. old tenor, and eight others followed on the spot 
with smaller sums. Dr. James Hawes, Jonathan Bond, 
and Capt. Stephen Maynard were appointed a committee 
to go to Concord and hear the report of the General 
Congress, — the rebel Congress, which General Gage 
could not disband, — and then the meeting adjourned. 

The whole town forthwith was full of military ardor. 
The cannon and ammunition were purchased ; seven men 
were appointed to learn how to handle the field-piece " in 
a warlike manner, so that they may know how to conduct 
and behave themselves if they shall be wanted for our 
defence." The town refused to grant any extra bounty to 
minute-men, on the ground that no more was expected of 
them than of other men ; every man was to be a minute 
man, and to do his utmost in the common peril, — they 
refused to make invidious distinctions. The old church 
was the rendezvous, and in due time, like the more famous 
Old South in Boston, witnessed the rallying of armed men 
within its walls, to march for the defence of liberty. 

At length, on the 19th of April, 1775, the swift courier 
brings to town the call to arms. Lexington and Concord 
are attacked by British troops ; the war has begun. There 
is no hesitation ; the minute-men are ready. 

"Swift as their summons came they left 
The plough mid-furrow standing still, 
The half-ground corn grist in the mill, 
The spade in earth, the axe in cleft." 

They are drawn up in array at the meeting-house ; they 
receive their rations and arms, with a supply of powder, 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



163 



bullets, flints, and hatchets, and are off and away, and ar- 
rive near Boston that same night by way of Lexington. 

The following is the roll of the minute-company, as 
prepared by Edmund Brigham, captain, Nov. 27, 1775 : 



Edmund Brigham, Captain. 
Thomas Bond, first Lieut. 
Moses Wheelock, second Lieut. 
Nathan Townsend,y£>.y/ Searg*- 
James Godfrey, second " 
John Harrington, third " 
John Ball, fourth Lieut. 
Joshua Chamberlain, first Corp. 
Edward Entwishill, second " 
John Fay, third " 

Caleb Harrington, fourth " 
James Gould, first drummer. 
Richard Temple, second " 
Nathaniel Chamberlain, Fifer. 
Amasa Maynard. 
Thaddeus Warren. 
Solomon Maynard. 
Samuel Thurston. 
James Bellows. 
Joseph Bond. 
Eleazer Wheelock. 
Phineas Hardy, Jr. 
Fortunatus Miller. 



James Miller, Jr. 
Benjamin Ball. 
William Spring. 
Daniel Adams, Jr. 
Joseph Chamberlain. 
Asahel Bigelow. 
Henry Marble. 
Samuel Williams. 
Phineas Brigham. 
Phineas Gleason, Jr. 
Joseph McCulloch. 
Edward Brigham. 
Barnabas Brigham. 
Eli Harrington. 
Samuel Bellows. 
Amsden Gale. 
Daniel Warren, Jr. 
Breck Parkman. 
Seth Brigham. 
Daniel Hardy, Jr. 
Simeon Forbes. 
Benjamin Whitney. 
John McCulloch. 



The muster-roll in the State Records gives the same list, 
with one exception, — it substitutes the name of William 
Woods for that of James Miller, Jr. It also gives the 
following list of members of this minute-company who 
enlisted in the service of the United Colonies : — 

Thos. Bond, First Lieut. Richard Temple, Drummer. 

Moses Wheelock, Second do. James Bellows. 

Jas. Godfrey, Searg. William Spring. 

Joshua Chamberlain, ~\ Henry Marble. 

Edmund Entwishill, V Corporals. James McCulloch, 

John Fay, ) Daniel Hardy, Jr. 



164 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Fortunatus Miller. Phineas Brigham. 

William Woods. Edward Brigham. 

Benj. Ball. Eleazar Wheelock. 

Asahel Bigelow. John McCulloch. 

The shock of April 19 woke up the country, as at a 
later day did the firing on Fort Sumter. Within twelve 
days New England put twenty thousand men around Bos- 
ton, shutting the British within the town ; and the Thir- 
teen Colonies were awake and ready for war. Some of the 
Westborough men were at Bunker Hill. Thirty-two en- 
listed under Capt Moses Wheelock for eight months, and 
went to Cambridge and Dorchester. Seventeen more went 
with Capt. Seth Morse, in December, for two months ; and 
eighteen, in January, 1776, with Lieut. James Godfrey. 
They were in the gallant army that surrounded Boston 
in the ensuing March, and saw from the earthworks on 
Dorchester Heights the evacuation of the city. 

The British, driven from Boston, went by an indirect 
route to New York. General Washington was there to 
receive them ; and in his army was Lieut. James Godfrey, 
of Westborough, with twenty-two fellow-townsmen. It can 
hardly be otherwise than that in the defeat of the 27th of 
August some of them laid down their lives; but there are 
no records left to tell the tale. 

Meantime great events were happening. Massachusetts 
had already declared " that the happiness of the people is 
the sole end of government; and the consent of the peo- 
ple is the only foundation of it in reason, morality, and 
the natural fitness of things. And therefore, every act of 
government, every exercise of sovereignty, against or with- 
out the consent of the People, is injustice, usurpation, 
and Tyranny." In accordance with this declaration, the 
Province had renounced allegiance to the Crown, and 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 65 

established a government of its own, consisting of repre- 
sentatives elected by the people, and a council chosen by 
the assembly; which though only a temporary expedient, 
adopted " until a Governor of his Majesty's appointment 
will consent to govern the colony according to its charter," 
was a step toward the final separation. 

The Virginia Convention, in June, 1776, declared: "All 
men are by nature equally free, and have inherent rights. 
. . . All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, 
the people. . . . Government is, or ought to be, instituted 
for the common benefit and security." When, therefore, 
the Continental Congress came to the question of inde- 
pendence, it had only to follow in the line already marked 
out by the separate Colonies. It was inevitable that the 
step should be taken by all, having been taken by each 
in reality already. It was taken, and the Colonies cut 
loose from the Throne. 

Westborough had stood shoulder to shoulder with the 
other towns. It issued its last town-meeting warrant in 
His Majesty's name Feb. 13, 1776; the next, of May 13, 
was " in the name of the Government and People of 
Massachusetts Bay." On May 24 it instructed its repre- 
sentative to the Provincial Congress, Capt. Stephen May- 
nard, to conform to a resolve of the House concerning 
" Independentcy," in case the Honorable Congress should 
judge it most expedient for the safety and welfare of the 
Colonies. The people knew that such a course meant 
war to the bitter end, but they did not flinch. On July 2, 
1776, a vote was passed that "every man should pay his 
just proportion in supporting the war from April ye 19, 
1775, and so forward." They would have no shirks. The 
demands were coming in, too, as fast as they could meet 
them with the help of every one. There were bounties to 



1 66 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

pay to every enlisted soldier, ranging from £i to ;£io. In 
April, as we have seen, they had purchased a cannon and 
munitions of war, and sent provisions to Lexington and 
Cambridge. In May requisition was made for breadstuffs, 
and twice in the same month for blankets. In June the 
Provincial Congress called for thirteen thousand coats, o 
which Westborough's proportion was forty-eight. In Jan- 
uary, 1776, came another call for blankets, which in those 
days were not turned off by the hundred in shoddy mills, 
but spun and woven by the women. These continued calls 
strained the endurance of the people to the utmost. The 
payment of bounties soon became very onerous. Dec. 30, 
1776, the town voted, in a fit of desperation, "to stop 
raising soldiers by a tax ; and to receive back money from 
any who chose to return it." And evidently there were 
some who did so; for in the following March, when the 
continued demand forced the town to levy another bounty 
tax, and a bounty of £30 was voted to three years men, those 
who had before paid back their money received it again. 

There were also special calls from time to time, of which 
we have a hint in the taking of a collection in church, May 
18, 1777, "for Samuel Goodnow, of Elizabeth town, in ye 
Jersies, driven out of his home by Regulars ; " and another 
in April, 1778, "for John Forbes, driven off by ye enemy 
at Otter Creek." In September, 1779, there was a call 
for relief for Boston, asking for beef, cattle, sheep, butter, 
cheese, and rye, and Indian meal ; but the largest demand 
recorded at any one time came in January, 1778, when 
the town voted to pay its share of .£400,000, to be put 
on loan by the State, which amounted to ;£ 1,204. 

Of course there were then, as always, those who tried 
to take advantage of the demand created by the war to 
obtain an increase of wages and profits out of the strug- 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 67 

gles of the patriots. The country could not stand that 

strain then as well as it could afterward in the war of 

1 86 1 ; and the effort was made to regulate prices, which, 

whether successful or not, is interesting to the student of 

the history of economics, and also throws a good deal of 

light on the occupations and customs of our fathers. 

In February, 1777, Westborough adopted the following 

list: — 

Price of day labor in January and February . ... is. 6d. a day. 

" " in April 2s. " 

" " May to June 15 2s. $d. " 

" " June 15 to Aug. 15 3s. " 

" " Aug. 15 through Sept 2s. qd. " 

« " in Oct is. lod. " 

" " in Nov. and Dec is. 6d. " 

For a carpenter who is a workman at the trade — 

For the best half of the year 3^. " 

For the rest of the year 2s. 6d. " 

Bedstead of maple 6s. 8d. 

A good stubble plough well made 6s. 

For a good Wrake is. 2d. 

For a plain setting chair, made of maple and bottomed, 3s. $d. 

For botaming a chair with flags gd. 

For making a pair of cart wheels of good timber . £1 10s. 
For a shoemaker making a pair of men's or wo- 
men's shoes, finding thread and heels as usual 3s. 
For a pair of good shoes for a man, made of good 

neat's leather ys. 6d. 

And other shoes in proportion, according to their 
Bigness and Goodness. 
For a Blacksmith shoeing a horse all round, with 

shoes well steeled, toe and heel .... 6s. 

And for shoeing all round without steel . . 4^. \d. 

And for setting a shoe $d. 

Good walnut wood per cord ys. 

Good oak wood " 6s. 

Good swamp wood " 5^. qd. 

All delivered at the door. 
For a doctor's journey, ys. per mile, and other articles 
in proportion, according to the cost of medicines. 



1 68 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Good wheat, per bushel 6s. 8d. 

Good rye 4s. \d. 

Good Indian corn 3^. 2d. 

Good oats is. 

Good potatoes, per bush, in ye fall of ye year . . . is. 

At other seasons of ye year is. \d. 

Good grass-fed beef i\d. lb. 

Good stall-fed beef $\d. " 

Good lump butter gd. " 

New milk by grass i^d. qt. 

" hay ild. « 

Good tobacco 6d. lb. 

For good Cyder in fall of the year 3s. \d. bbl. 

" " in spring and summer . ... 6s. " 

For a Tavern keeper pr. mug for Cyder .... 2\d. 

For a meal of Vitials of the best quality .... is. pr. meal. 

For their common Vitials 8d. " 

For a mug of flip, made of W. I. Rum lod. 

For New England flip Sd. 

For boarding a man pr. week 4^. 4/f. 

For boarding a woman 2s. 8d. 

For spinning 4 skein yarn, 14 knots in a skein . . \d. pr. sk. 

For spinning good woolen warp, 7 knots in a skein . 2\d. pr. sk. 

For weaving 4 skein yarn, yd. wide "$\d. pr. yd. 

Good yard wide tow cloth 2s. yi. pr. yd. 

It is evidence that this attempt to regulate prices did 
not altogether succeed that in the following June a com- 
mittee was appointed " to prevent monopolizing and op- 
pression, according to an act of this State ; Amasa May- 
nard to be the person for this town to obtain evidence 
against any person who is inimical to this State, or any 
of the United States of America, and lay the same before 
the Court of the State in order to try the same." 

But the inevitable tendency of things could not thus be 
stayed ; and three years later, such was the depreciation 
of the currency that corn was worth about fifty dollars a 
bushel, and beef four dollars a pound. What this meant 
to the people, burdened already beyond endurance, we 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 69 

at this day cannot realize. That amid it all they did not 
surrender their liberties, stamps them as men who were 
worthy to win great things for posterity. 

Meantime the enlistments were taking the able-bodied 
men away from the town, until it must have seemed a 
lonely place. In August, 1776, six men went to Dorches- 
ter, and six more to Canada with Lieut. Thomas Bond. 
In September nineteen more went to Horseneck with 
Capt. Seth Morse, the town having drafted every fifth 
man, with a bounty of £2, in order to secure the quota. 
In November seventeen went to New Jersey with Lieut. 
James Bowman for three months, where General Wash- 
ington was in retreat before Howe. In 1777 Lieut. Nathan 
Townsend, with seven men, went to Providence; and in 
August of the same year Capt. Edmund Brigham took 
eighteen to the Northern Army. Already, on the 17th 
of July, seventeen had gone with Lieut. Levi Warren to 
Bennington, where, in August, Burgoyne was defeated by 
General Stark ; and sixteen others went on a sudden sum- 
mons with Lieutenant Grout, in September, to share in 
the victory of General Gates, when Burgoyne surrendered 
at Saratoga. 

And so it went on for six years. The bounty-list is a 
very suggestive document, and summarizes the work of 
the whole period. It is here subjoined. 

A Memorandum of what the town gave each man in the present 
War, since the Nineteenth of April, 1775. 

1775- 

32 men that went to Cambridge and Dor- 
chester, with Capt. Moses Wheelock, *. *■ *■ 

eight months, £\ each man 128 o o 

Dec. 17 men that went to Dorchester with Capt. 

Seth Morse, for two months, ,£1 each . . 17 o o 



170 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

1776. 

Jan. 20. 18 men that went to Dorchester with Lieut. £ *■ d. 

James Godfrey, for two months, £1 each 18 00 
" 7 men hired by the town for one year, to go 

into the Continental service in Col. Ward's 

regiment, £4 each 28 o o 

June 24. 22 men that went to New York with Lieut. 

James Godfrey, at £9 each 198 o o 

Aug. 19. 6 men to Dorchester as guards, £3 each . 1800 
" 6 men that went to Canada with Lt. Thomas 

Bond, at ^10 each 60 o o 

Sept. 10. 19 men that went to Horse-neck with Capt. 

Seth Morse, at £4 each 76 o o 

Nov. 19. 19 men that went to the Jerseys with Lieut. 

James Bowman, for three months, at £$ 8 

each man 102 2 o 

[July 26, 1776. Voted to pay those men that went to 

Dorchester ^3 each man ; 4 men] ... 12 o o 

1777- 

April 12. 7 men that went with Lt. Nathan Townsend 

to Providence, £4 16 each man .... 33 12 o 
July 27. 17 men that went with Lt. Levi Warren to 

Bennington, £6 9 each 109 13 o 

" 27 men on alarm to Hadley, ^1 16 each . . 48 14 o 

August. 18 men that went with Capt. Edmund Brig- 
ham to the northward, £9 each .... 162 o o 
" 6 men that ware raised for eight months to 

fill up the Continental army, ^22 each man 132 o o 
Sept. 16. 4 men that went to Rode Island, ,£12 each 48 o o 
" 16 men that went on Alarm, when Burgine 

was taken, with Lt. Grout, £3 per man . 48 o o 
Dec. 22. 4 men that went to Rhode Island .... 24 o 

1778. 

Feb. 7. 10 men that went to Roxbury, £7 each . . 70 o o 

April 20. 6 men for nine months, to fill up the Conti- 
nental Army, ^140 each 840 o o 

" 7 men for eight months, to reinforce the 

Continental Army, ^90 630 o 

June 12. 8 men for six months, to reinforce the Con- 
tinental Army, ,£155 each 1240 o o 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 171 

June 18. 15 men that went to Rhode Island by order £ s . d. 

of Council, £18 each man 270 o o 

" 23. 4 men that went to Rutland, to guard the 

Convention troops, £Zo each man . . . 320 o o 
July 24. 4 men that went to Rhode Island, ;£ 60 each 

man 240 o o 

" 27. 13 men that went to Rhode Island, to rein- 
force Gen. Sullivan, ^70 each man . . 910 o o 
Sept. 6. 6 men to Rhode Island, at £7$ each . . . 45° ° ° 
"17. 8 men to serve in and about Boston, ^90 

each man 7 2 ° ° ° 

1779. 

Jan. 9 men to serve in and about Boston, £60 

each man 54° ° ° 

Feb. 26. 4 men to go to Rhode Island, £90 each man, 360 o o 

June 8. 2 men to Rutland, £80 each 160 o o 

" 16. 4 men to guard at Rutland, £120 each man, 480 o o 
" 8. 5 men to Reinforce the Continental men for 

nine months, ,£600 each 3000 o o 

Sept. 17. 3 men to man the works in and about Boston, 

^50 each man 150 o o 

Oct. 9. 10 men to Reinforce the Continental Army, 

for three months, ^150 each 1500 o o 

1780. 

Jan. 22. 14 men to Reinforce the Continental Army, 

£1270 each man 17780 o o 

The bounties, which began with £4 per man, and 
reached at last the astounding figure of £1,270, illustrate 
in the most striking way the depreciation of the currency 
as the struggle drew toward its close. The difference is 
not so much in the amount granted as in the value of 
the money in which it was paid. 

The following table shows the amount granted each 
year, and the number of enlistments. Of course many 
of these were re-enlistments, and it is not certain that the 
men all belonged in Westborough ; but that a little town 
of less than one thousand inhabitants should enlist three 
hundred and eighty-one men in six years shows how the 



" 1776 


a 




" 1777 


a 




" 1778 


u 




" 1779 


i. 




" 1780 


« 






Whole 


number 



172 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

necessities of the war drained the population, and how 
desperately the men of that day fought their struggle. 

£ s. 
In 1775 bounties were paid to 49 men. Whole amount 145 o 

101 " " 512 2 

99 " " 605 19 

81 " " 5,690 o 

37 " " 6,190 o 

14 " " 17,780 o 

. 381 Amount . . . ,£30,923 o 

To this really noble record we must add, in our mental 
estimate, the thousand things that are only hinted at in 
any public documents : the prompt and brave responses 
of the "Home Guard," — fathers and mothers and sisters, 
who bore poverty and bereavement, and wrought patrioti- 
cally with fingers and spinning-wheels and looms to keep 
the army clothed and fed. Calls for supplies were inces- 
sant. Blankets, coats, stockings, shoes, were continually 
sent in answer to calls. Before the close of the war the 
suffering from lack of supplies became greater than from 
the enemy's bullets. There are two scraps of paper in 
the town archives that one does not read without a quick- 
ening of the pulse : they are only receipts for blankets, 
signed by Samuel Danforth and Henry Marble ; but they 
were signed in the camp at Valley Forge, in that terrible 
winter whose record of suffering is among the most trying 
episodes of the long war. 

This last-named soldier was one of those who " enlisted 
for the war or for life," and saw with his own eyes the 
principal events in the eight years' struggle. Thirty-five 
years later he put on record the simple outline of his 
share in the scenes which at that time only the old men 
remembered, as follows : — 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 73 

Statement of the Services of Henry Marble, late a lieutenant in 
the Continental Army, commanded by the illustrious George 
Washington, Esq. 

On the 19th day of April, 1775, I marched from the town of 
Westborough, state of Massachusetts, 34 miles from Boston, on 
the first alarm of war, and arrived near Boston the same day, by 
the way of Lexington, where the first blood was shed. I enlisted 
soon for eight months into a regiment commanded by Jona. Ward, 
Esq. On the 17th of June I was in the battle of Bunker Hill. 

1776. I was two months with the army on the heights at 
Dorchester, south of Boston, and saw the British evacuate the 
town, blow up the castle, etc. I then enlisted soon after, as 
corporal, into a regiment commanded by a Colonel Smith, and 
marched to New York. I was on the city guards the day that 
the enemy took the place, and underwent all the fatigues of 
that campaign ; was in the battle of White Plains. 

1777. I enlisted for three years in the 15th Mass. Regiment, 
1st company, as sargeant ; joined the northern army; was pre- 
sent at the taking of Burgoyne, and the battles that preceded it ; 
then marched to the south, and joined the army in Pennsyl- 
vania, cantoned at Valley Forge. 

1778. In June marched in pursuit of the enemy, who had 
left Philadelphia ; on the 28th overtook them at Monmouth ; 
had a severe action. In the month of July the Brigade to which 
I belonged, commanded by Gen. Glover, was ordered to Rhode 
Island, to join the army under command of Gen. Sullivan. Was 
in all the hazard and fatigue of a seige against the town of 
Newport ; but failing in the expedition, made a safe retreat, and 
took winter quarters in the town of Providence. In the month 
of November I was promoted to the rank of ensign. 

1779. On the 28th of June I was promoted to the rank of 
Lieutenant. On the nth of July was marched to New York, and 
joined the army on the banks of the Hudson, cantoned near 
Fishkill. 

1780. The number of regiments was reduced to that of ten 
in the Massachusetts line ; and I was incorporated into the 5th 
Regiment, commanded by Rufus Putnam ; soon after which I 



174 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

was appointed adjutant of said regiment, and so continued to 
the close of the war in 1783. 

The foregoing is a true statement of facts according to the 
best of my knowledge. 

{Signed) Henry Marble, 

Late a Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Revolutionary 
A rmy of the United States of A merica. 

Dated at Montgomery this first day of March, 1818, and forty-third of the 
Independence of the United States. 

Meantime the town kept its interest awake and active in 
regard to the political progress of the States. The Decla- 
ration of Independence was received, and recorded in the 
town records Sept. 16, 1776. The action of the Conti- 
nental Congress was fully accepted by the people of the 
town, and held as binding upon them in all subsequent 
action. The effort to devise a Constitution for Massa- 
chusetts was scanned with jealous earnestness, lest it 
should not fully secure the rights of the towns. In De- 
cember, 1776, the town refused to consent to the fram- 
ing of a Constitution of Government by the Council and 
House of Representatives then sitting, according to the 
Resolve of the General Assembly of September 17th; and 
in order to enforce their unwillingness, they refused to 
send another representative to the General Assembly. 
Again, in the May following they voted " not to give our 
consent that our Representative should have any hand in 
forming a Constitution of Government till there can be 
an alteration in the present form of representation." In 
March, 1778, a committee was appointed to peruse the 
Constitution devised by the General Court, which had 
proceeded to the task in spite of the town's vigorous 
protest. There is no report of the committee recorded ; 
but in May it came before the town, and received one 
affirmative vote against sixty-five in the negative. 



IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 1 75 

The next year the representative was instructed to vote 
for a State convention, to form a new Constitution. When 
in the next autumn such a convention was to meet at 
Concord, Capt. Nathan Fisher was appointed delegate, 
with the following instructions : — 

" 1. The people must have power to instruct their representative. 

" 2. There must be a prefatory bill of rights. 

"3. No one branch of the legislature must have the power of 
negative over the other. 

"4. A printed copy of the constitution agreed upon must be 
immediately sent to the towns, that they may vote on it. 

" 5. The convention is then to adjourn, in order to hear from 
the towns. 

" 6. The constitution to be adopted by a two-thirds majority 
of the voters of the towns." 

So, vigilant for their rights, and ready to defend them, 
whether in council or on the battle-field, our fathers carried 
the town through the great crisis in a manner of which 
there is no occasion to be ashamed. Westborough's his- 
tory in the Revolution is a good one; if not specially 
conspicuous, yet indicative of the sturdy independence and 
heroic sacrifice which helped to make the newly born 
nation a success. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1775-1782. 

CONTEMPORARY MATTERS OF LOCAL INTEREST. — DIS- 
CUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. — DEATH OF 
MR. PARKMAN. 

INURING the eventful years of the Revolution, while 
public affairs absorbed the attention and called the 
sturdiest actors to other scenes, there were also some oc- 
currences of no small local interest in town and church. 

The temper of mind which made men unwilling to 
brook despotic authority in the State, produced natu- 
rally a like independence in matters ecclesiastical. In- 
deed, since the movement began with a struggle for 
religious liberty, it would not be strange if the people 
were especially sensitive in regard to their rights in the 
church. Puritanism had broken away from bishop and 
prelate ; it had set up the Scriptures as the only rule of 
faith and practice ; but it had not yet established the 
doctrine — though it was even then in its birth-throes — 
of the supreme authority, within its own domain, of the 
local body of believers. There were remains of priestly 
power still lingering in practice; the minister was a po- 
tentate of no small significance ; his will was usually law, 
and all opposition had to stand the fire of his unsparing 
condemnation. Above all the rest of his prerogatives 
stood that of the veto, — the right absolutely to reject a 
decision of the church if it did not suit his views. In 



DISCUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 1 77 

1774 the Ministerial Association of this vicinity had made 
a deliverance on this point, — which had come to be a 
rather sensitive one, — asserting the right of the veto, 
and designating a certain book as the standard of eccle- 
siastical law. There were those in the Westborough 
church who did not relish the assumptions of this paper, 
and eleven of the brethren had signed a protest against 
it. This protest was brought before the church at a 
meeting held the first day of January, 1775, and the ven- 
erable pastor, now seventy-one years old, and more than 
fifty years in this pastorate, made an address on the sub- 
ject. He urged "ye Unseasonableness of Disputes of this 
Nature at so distressing a time of public calamity; the 
Impropriety and Danger of arraigning such a Body of 
eminent and learned men as the Venerable Convention, 
and condemning them who were verily ye Defenders of ye 
Congregational Plan, and therefore not desiring to have 
Solemn Testimony borne against them." After some 
debate, this meeting adjourned for two weeks. 

At the adjourned meeting the matter was again taken 
up. The pastor and some others desired to have the 
matter dropped, but the original movers were persistent. 
It was then proposed to reach the heart of the matter 
under discussion by passing resolutions on the subject 
without reference to the Association ; but that was not 
satisfactory, and the meeting adjourned. On the fourth 
of April the matter came up again, and two papers were 
presented ; but being roughly drawn up, they failed to 
secure action, and another adjournment was made for 
three weeks. This meeting was broken up by an alarm 
to march against the " regulars ; " but another was notified 
a month later, — May 23. 

At that time a paper was presented, signed by fifteen 



I78 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

members, of whom nine were of the original eleven 
memorialists, which contained the following articles: 

" 1. To see if it is the mind of this church that the Book 
called 'Observations upon the Congregational Plan of Church 
Government' be such in their opinion as they are willing to 
receive as a Rule to be governed by, when we do not know 
that this church or any other church had any hand in composing 
the same" 

In regard to this article, Mr. Parkman records, — 
" Among the brethren it passed in the negative, the pas- 
tor observing that he did not conceive it was expected 
so high a regard should be paid to it as to make it a 
Rule or Standard, — what was of Divine inspiration being 
our only rule in that sense; nor is it imposed, but ye 
contrary." 

" 2. To see if it is agreeable to the minds of the brethren of 
this church to break communion with any other church before 
admonition be given." 

To this a negative vote was given ; the pastor, how- 
ever, again differing from his church to this extent : 
that " when there is, with persons or with a church, 
matter of scandal, division, etc., and the cause is depend- 
ing, it is unfit that either party should offer themselves 
to the communion of other churches." 

"3. To see if it is ye opinion of this church that a pastor 
of a Congregational church has a legal right and authority to 
negative and make void the votes which such a church shall 
see cause to pass." 

This also was decided in the negative ; and this was 
really the point about which feeling centred. It was 
the point on which there had come to be a serious dif- 
ference of opinion between the old-fashioned pastor and 



DISCUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 1 79 

his flock. Mr. Parkman replied to this last vote at con- 
siderable length, quoting synods and Fathers and author- 
ities numberless in defence of his privilege of veto, and 
concluding with a notable use of the privilege itself, in 
face of the vote of the church, as follows (I quote from 
his own record) : — 

" The Pastor, therefore, professing himself Congregational, & 
this Church having been settled upon that plan, & hitherto con- 
tinued [now fifty years] a Congregational Church, agreeable to 
ye Sacred Scriptures, the Church Covenant, the Platform afore- 
said for ye substance of it, the other writings of ye worthy 
Fathers who compiled it, with those also who have writ since 
in Defense of it, and ye general Practice in these Churches, 
did not Consent to the vote, but insisted that, in Conformity to 
our B. Lord & Sav rs Mind & Direction, there must be in Church 
acts an agreement, that is, of both the Elders and the .Fraternity. 
For this he says Expressly in Mat. 18: 'Whatsoever ye shall 
bind on Earth,' etc., and then immediately follow the words in 
ye 19th Ch., ' if you shall agree on earth,' etc. Hence renowned 
Expositors say, ' Quod litigat, non ligat.' " 

Nothing could be simpler than this solution of the 
difficulty, — there must be an agreement. The church 
did not wish to side with the pastor, but the pastor 
would not agree with the church ; therefore the church 
must yield, — and it did, seeing there was no help for 
it. There was a hasty adjournment at the close of the 
pastor's address, and there is no further record on the 
subject; but the pastor never yielded his right of veto. 
The church, out of veneration for their old pastor, kept 
silence during the remainder of his life, but took care to 
have an understanding on the subject with future candi- 
dates before installation. 

It is a singular circumstance that in the midst of the 
sore burdens and distresses of the war, when taxes were 



l8o EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

enormous, and calls for supplies incessant, the first mis- 
sionary collection ever recorded from the church was 
raised. On the 22d of September, 1776, two men of 
mark appeared in the pulpit of the Westborough church, 
— the Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., two years later to be elected 
president of Yale College, and then pastor at Newport; 
and the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, soon to be famous as the 
author of a new doctrinal system, and destined to be 
more popularly known as the hero of Mrs. Stowe's " Min- 
ister's Wooing." These men were making something of 
a stir in their opposition to slavery and their sympathy 
for the negro. Hopkins was afterward the means of se- 
curing emancipation in Rhode Island. At this time they 
were making a tour of the churches in the interest of an 
African mission. Newport, where their pastorates lay, 
was in the hands of the British, and for the time they 
were forced to retire. Hopkins was greatly interested in 
a scheme, which he had originated, to send some of the 
negroes, who had been brought here as slaves, back to 
Africa, to begin a work of civilization and evangelization 
there. So it happened that on this Sunday the two 
preachers came together to Westborough. The cause 
was a new one, — it savored of romance as well as of 
piety ; and so, in spite of the pressure of the time, there 
was a goodly response to their appeal. Mr. Parkman 
thus chronicles their visit: — 

" A contribution was made in compliance with an address of 
Rev. Dr. Stiles and Mr. Hopkins, of Newport, for ye Support 
and Encouragement of Missionarys to Annamabo in Africa. It 
amounted to £4. 7. 10, & by Additions afterward to £4. 12, lawful 
money : which may God graciously accept through Jesus Christ ! " 

It is less agreeable to note that the town did not sup- 
ply the needs of its own venerable pastor at this time 



MR. parkman's appeal. i8i 

with equal alacrity. He was now seventy-three years old, 
and his salary, always meagre, was rendered quite inad- 
equate by the depreciation of the currency. In Decem- 
ber, 1776, he was obliged to make an appeal to the town 
to furnish his firewood. This had been a matter of dis- 
pute, more or less, during his ministry. It might not 
seem a large item to us, but we have to remember that 
the family of this pioneer minister was numerous. Six- 
teen children had been born into it in all, of whom thir- 
teen were living, — not all in the old home, of course, 
for some of them had homes of their own, and at least 
two of his sons were in the army. Yet the old house 
was far from empty. Moreover, the fireplace of those 
days was no dainty modern grate, and its demands were 
not to be despised. The annual allowance of wood for 
Mr. Parkman, when the town furnished it, was ordina- 
rily thirty-five cords, and one year forty cords ; and the 
estimated cost of it as the value of money decreased, 
was, in 1777, ,£42; in 1778, £69; and in 1780, .£450. 
This latter year his salary besides was ^"4000, — which 
did not equal in purchasing power the ;£8o of his origi- 
nal settlement; for corn was $50 a bushel, and rye $70; 
beef $400 a cwt., and sole-leather $22 a pound. So the 
petition for his firewood has some reason in it, and it is 
a touching revelation of the man and the time. It reads 
as follows : — 

Westborough, Decemb er ye 2, 1776. 
To the town at their meeting by adjournment this day : 

Gentelmen, — This is to manifest my very hearty sympathy 
with you in the common Distresses and grievous Burdens of the 
present Dark Day : that I have fully performed, according to 
my utmost ability, all such duty as has been requested of me 
in my office, agreeably to my age and circumstances, so that I 



1 82 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

have not knowingly given offence to any person ; and I am still 
ready to do and to bear, as God shall assist me, whatever may 
be in any Reason desired of me. I rely upon your justice and 
honor to afford me subsistence in your service, as is in all equity 
to be expected. But my brethren, the article of getti?ig my zvood 
is utterly beyond my power, and you was sensible of this from 
the beginning, and you gave me reason to depend on you for it. 
It is plain I must unavoidably suffer unless you will show so 
much compassion as to help me. I don't insist at all upon the 
manner of your doing it, so it be but just and equal and answer 
the end ; whatever you do about other things, there is neces- 
sity of getting the Wood, or your own selves and Familys will 
suffer loss. 

I am, yours Affectionately, 

E. Parkman. 

The town should never have suffered such an appeal 
to be necessary. After fifty-two years of willing service, 
as his strength failed, he should have found a hundred 
hands to help in any need that beset him ; but " repub- 
lics are ungrateful," and so, more to their shame, are 
parishes sometimes. The remembrance of the past goes 
for little when, for any reason, those services can be no 
longer rendered. The year following the town did better, 
and also in 1778 and 1779. In 1780, as we have seen, 
the depreciation of the currency was greatest, and the 
appropriations were munificent in appearance, though 
small enough in reality. 

These were the darkest days ; and singularly, as though 
Nature herself felt a throb of sympathy for her brave 
and suffering children, on the 19th of May came the 
" dark day " of which men and women spoke with bated 
breath for half a century afterward. Dr. Jeremy Bel- 
knap, of Boston, has left a good description of it in a 
letter to a friend. There had been some thunder in the 



THE "DARK DAY." 1 83 

morning, and all the forenoon was cloudy, though the 
sun occasionally broke through. About ten or eleven 
o'clock the clouds assumed a yellowish hue, reflecting a 
yellow light on all objects. An hour later the light began 
to Sfail, and by one o'clock the darkness had become so 
great that candles were lighted, and kept burning all the 
afternoon. The atmosphere was not simply dark, says the 
letter, but seemed full of a vapor " like the smoke of a 
malt-house or a coal-kiln ; " and there was a strong smell 
of smoke, as there had been for some days previous. 

The phenomenon excited great awe and foreboding, 
and was commonly regarded as something supernatural. 
One good minister assured his people that it was noth- 
ing less than the " pillars of smoke," prophesied by Joel, 
which were to accompany the " turning of the sun into 
darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and 
terrible day of the Lord come." Others said it must be 
the pouring out of the seventh vial of the Apocalypse. 
Others still, desiring to be somewhat more scientific, said 
that the earth was passing through the tail of a comet, 
or that the nucleus of a comet had got between the 
earth and the sun, and caused an eclipse. 

But Dr. Belknap, who was a man of keen observation 
in the phenomena of Nature, gives what is doubtless the 
true explanation, and his reasons for adopting it. For 
some time previous it had been unusually dry ; it was 
also the time of year when the farmers, breaking up 
new land, were in the habit of burning off the woods in 
order to plant corn. A vast cloud of smoke had thus 
been generated, which for several days had hung low, 
causing a strong smell of smoke, and specially notice- 
able at sunset, when the sun seemed to disappear in a 
dense bank half an hour before its setting. Some of the 



1 84 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

swamps had been covered with a sort of thick scum ; 
rain-water had been impregnated with smut; and every- 
thing pointed to the presence of a quantity of smoke, 
which, for atmospheric reasons, had not been blown 
away. On the day of the darkness the atmospheric con- 
ditions were such as to wrap this cloud of smoke thickly 
around this section of New England, and pack it close 
to the earth, so that all light must pass through it and 
take on a yellowish tinge. It is related that a woman in 
Middletown, Ct, began that day to iron her clothes, but 
found them looking so yellow that she put them away, 
intending to wash them over again ; but on looking at 
other things, and finding them all in the same condition, 
saw that it was occasioned by the quality of the light. 
The smoke was less dense in that region, so that it 
was not dark, and the yellow quality of the light was 
more marked. Those of us who remember the " yellow 
day" in September, 18S1, will see at once the identity 
of the phenomena. 

In view of the current depression, a State fast was 
observed on the 20th of July. But the light was begin- 
ning to break through already. On the 14th of Decem- 
ber following, the first warrant was issued in the name 
of the " Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay ; " and on 
the 20th of the next February the form was changed 
to the " Commonwealth of Massachusetts." The war 
was approaching its close, — the town was classed for 
recruits for the last time Feb. 15, 1781. In October 
Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, and the result of 
the long struggle became assured. On the 13th of De- 
cember the thanksgiving day appointed by Congress was 
joyfully kept in Westborough, and an offering was made 
for the sufferers in the South. 



MR. PARKMAN'S LAST DAYS. 1 85 

Mr. Parkman was beginning by this time to show 
unmistakable signs of breaking up. In September, 1781, 
he wrote in his Diary, " I am growing blind." He was 
obliged to add that it was sore times with him, — u My 
people have paid me no penny for fifteen months, and 
I know not what they will do." Both they and he were 
feeling the pinch of the times severely. There were, 
moreover, other than financial troubles. November 15th, 
Eben's son Elias died in hospital at Peekskill, aged 
twenty-four. It was all the men and women of that 
day could do to pull through to victory and peace ; for 
the old pastor, bowed with his seventy-nine years, the 
strain was too great to rally from. On the 16th of June, 
1782, he wrote in his Diary, " It is fifty-eight years since 
I gave my answer to ye Town's call to ye ministry." 
Few men have ever been able to write such a sentence 
as that. What a gulf of years lay between those records 
in his Diary ! For the man, it spanned all the years be- 
tween the youth of twenty-one, fresh from his studies, 
preparing for his marriage and for the opening duties of 
his profession, to the old man of seventy-nine, — facul- 
ties failing, limbs growing weak and tottering, the whole 
of his life behind him. For the town, it covered the 
growth from the pioneer settlement, when Indians lurked 
in the woods, and the roads were unbroken, to the day 
of schools and comfortable homes and well -tilled farms 
and strong civic life, — from the ninth year of George 
the First to the twenty-second year of George the Third, 
and to the accomplished independence of these Colo- 
nies, which put an end to all the Georges and all kings 
whatsoever for this land thenceforth. When he came, 
Chauncy Village had but just been absorbed in the town 
of Westborough ; it contained less than fifty families in 



1 86 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

an area nearly twice as large as it has at present He 
had seen it grow to double its population and divide 
into two, and the southern town become as large as 
both had been at the time of division. He had minis- 
tered in the first meeting-house during the whole of its 
existence, and in the new one until it had become too 
small, and had been enlarged and again overflowed. 
To the original thirteen members of his church he had 
added three hundred and eighty-one. He had baptized 
them all, married them all, and attended the funerals of 
those that had died. The whole life of the town was 
bound up with his life as it could never be again with 
the life of any one man. It owed to him more than it 
could ever again owe to any individual. 

On the 29th of August, 1782, a fast was held, "on 
account," as the venerable man notes it in the church 
records, " of the continuance of the war, the Drought, 
the Increase of vice and wickedness, & ye sorrowful decay 
of Religion." It was the last time he ever officiated on 
a day of civil appointment. He was still preaching, ac- 
cording to his Diary, in the early part of September; 
but his last entry was made in the church records on 
the 27th of October, and on the 18th of November the 
town voted to procure some one to assist him in preach- 
ing for the winter, appropriating for the purpose the sum 
of .£30. A vote was passed at the same meeting making 
an addition to his salary; but as the actual grant was 
not made until the March meeting, it availed him 
nothing, for before he could derive any benefit from it 
he had gone beyond the need of town-grants. 

He died Dec. 9, 1782, aged seventy-nine years, three 
months, and four days ; the funeral service was held on 
Monday, the 16th. The Rev. Mr. Bridge, of Sudbury, 



DEATH OF MR. PARKMAN. 1 87 

preached the sermon from Psalm xii. 1 : " Help, Lord ; 
for the godly man ceaseth ; for the faithful fail from 
among the children of men." 

Mr. Parkman leaves on the student of his life the im- 
pression of a good example of the New England min- 
ister of the olden time. The Rev. Elisha Rockwood says 
of him : " His preaching was evangelical, his deportment 
dignified, and in his daily intercourse with his people 
he was distinguished for dropping those words which 
are like apples of gold in pictures of silver." It is 
greatly to be regretted that no good portrait of him 
survives, to give us a clearer conception of the outward 
aspect of the man. His bearing was always in keeping 
with the honorable position he occupied. He magnified 
his calling, and was careful not to lower its dignity; but 
he was at the same time kindly and courteous. He 
was not one of the arrogant and lordly class, sometimes 
found at that day, whose pastoral sway was a rough dic- 
tatorship. He was, indeed, a bishop who believed that it 
was for the highest interest of his flock that they should 
be ruled, and he ruled them ; but his sway was gentle 
and reasonable, and his assertion of his rights not so 
effectual as to prevent his suffering some inconvenience, 
and in his old age some actual want, through the neglect 
of those who were in duty bound to provide for his 
necessities. His life was that of a man of simple tastes 
and habits, interested in common things, rising with some 
difficulty, perhaps, to the broad sympathies which take 
in great affairs. The pages of his Diary are full of the 
lights and shadows of daily life, while pervaded by the 
sturdy and reverent faith of the men of his time. He 
communed with himself much; he trusted in God, and 
imparted his own religious devotion to his people. There 



1 88 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

is abundant evidence of his high conscientiousness and 
his reverent piety. His theology was such as the age 
produced. It could not be broad, for breadth of culture 
was an impossibility; but neither was it bigoted or unin- 
telligent. And in his ideas of practical administration 
he was abreast of the most thoughtful men of his time, 
as his attitude in the excitements of 1740 shows. His 
long pastorate was of high service to the town, as well 
as to the kingdom of God in New England; and in its 
contrast to that which immediately followed, made the 
long-suffering people sigh for the good old times. Those 
who have followed in the succession during the hundred 
years that have supervened, have found no obstacles in 
their way of his raising, and have been honored by 
their connection with so worthy a man as Ebenezer Park- 
man. By his patient labors, in season and out of season, 
through times that tried men's souls, he and the men 
and women who toiled with him wrought out a noble 
beginning for those who came after him. It would be 
a fitting tribute to his worth, and a lasting stimulus to 
succeeding generations, if some suitable memorial of 
him were erected in the church and town he served 
so well. In a higher sense, the town of to-day is his 
memorial, and the memorial of all who, like him, laid 
good foundations in that early day against the time 
to come. 

He was buried in the old cemetery, " and his tomb 
is with us unto this day." The inscription upon it is as 
follows : — 



INSCRIPTION ON MR. PARKMAN'S TOMB. [89 



Here lies deposited 
the mortal part of that man of God 
the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, A.M., 
Who was born Sept 5, 1703 ; 
ordained the first Bishop of the Church 
in WESTBOROUGB, October 28th, 1724; 
and died on the 9th of December, 1782 : 
having completed the 79th year of his age 
on Sept. 1 6th, & the 58th year of his rr. 
on November 8th, preceding. 

He was formed by nature and education to 
be an able minister of the New- Testament, 
and obtained grace to be eminently faithful 
in the work of the Lord : 
He was a firm friend to the faith, order, and 
constitution of the New-England Churches. 
He was a learned, pious, good man, and 
full of the holy Ghost, & faith unfeigned ; 
and answered St Paul's description 
of a Scripture Bishop, being "blameless, 
vigilant Sober, of good behaviour, 
given to hospitality, apt to teach." 

Be thou faithful unto the death, 
And I will give thee a Crown of life, 
Says Christ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

1782-1800. 

FROM THE DEATH OF MR. PARKMAN TO THE END OF 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

THE town was not ruined by the war, in spite of the 
hard drain upon it. According to Peter Whitney 
it had in 1791 a hundred and eighteen houses and nine 
hundred and thirty-four inhabitants ; and the people were 
industrious and wealthy, according to his standard, " as 
any one must naturally suppose from the appearance of 
their places and buildings." It is pleasant to know that 
Westborough's reputation for keeping its farms and build- 
ings in good order dates back so far. There were men 
here at this time who had accumulated wealth, lived 
in good houses, and kept a modest retinue of servants. 
Capt. Stephen Maynard was perhaps the wealthiest of 
all ; he lived in the house on the Northborough road now 
occupied by B. J. Stone, was a very prominent figure in 
the town, and one of the leaders in military affairs. A 
great-granddaughter has written of him : — 

" He was a rich old nabob and a stiff whig. He owned two 
negroes, a male and a female, man and wife, who had a child 
just about the age of Anne Brigham [a stepdaughter of Captain 
Maynard, who married the first Isaac Davis]. They were after- 
wards sold, and removed south ; and my grandmother [Mrs. 
Davis] said she could well remember their departure. She was 
very much attached to the daughter." 

This is an interesting glimpse into the time, and makes 
us long for more. It is not impossible that the doughty 



PROMINENT MEN A CENTURY AGO. 191 

captain was not altogether in sympathy with the appeal 
of those rank abolitionists of that early time, the Rev. 
Messrs. Stiles and Hopkins, when they came to West- 
borough in 1776 to raise money for their negro colony in 
Annamabo, Africa. But slaves were no novelty in New 
England at that day. Mr. Parkman had one himself, whom 
he brought from Boston; 1 Mr. James Bowman is known 
to have owned one ; and there are traditions of others. 

There were other prominent men here in those days, of 
whom we can obtain only a glimpse, — Phineas Hardy, 
whose name heads the list of signers of the reply to the 
Committee of Correspondence ; Capt. Nathan Fisher, who 
was delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1779, and 
representative for many years ; Dr. James Hawes, who 
was always wanted for committees and important posi- 
tions; Lieut. Moses Wheelock, who rose to be Colonel 
Wheelock, and was a man of much force. These and many 
others gave character to the town, which at that time 
occupied an honorable place in the county. Every one 
knows the small marble slab which stands by the road- 
side, on the way to Shrewsbury, just beyond the house of 
the late George Davis. It bears this inscription : " Capt. 
Bezaleel Eager was killed on this spot Oct. 31, 1787, 
aged 74. Erected by I. Davis." One day in 1874 I 
found in the Worcester Library an old copy of a mag- 
azine published in Worcester in 1787 by Isaiah Thomas, 
then the only newspaper of the region, which contained 
the following item from Northborough : — 

1 This slave was named Maro, and was purchased of Mr. Parkman's 
father in Boston in 1728 for the sum of £74. Mr. Parkman made the 
journey home on horseback, the negro running behind. A little more than 
a year afterward he wrote in his Journal that Maro was very ill, — at the 
point of death; and the next day made the following unique record : "Dark 
as it has been with us, it became much darker about the sun-setting : the 
Sun of Maro's life Sat." 



192 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

"Died at Northboro' Oct. 31, very suddenly, in the 74th year 
of his age, Capt. Eezaleel Eager, formerly a representative for 
the town of Westborough in the General Court. He was a per- 
son well known, and as well respected, and his death is much 
lamented. He was a sensible, honest, worthy man, and has left 
behind him a fair character and a good name. 

" The manner of his death was as follows : retiring from a 
lecture [held in the house which stood just this side of the 
stone above mentioned], he mounted his horse in the view of a 
number of people ; but not being properly seated, and not having 
full possession of the bridle — as was supposed — his horse, 
lively and gay, immediately set out upon a run, and threw 
him against a stone wall, whereby his brains were instantly 
dashed out, perhaps not more than twenty rods from where 
he first mounted. Several persons ran to him as he fell, but 
discovered not the least sign of life in him, except the motion 
of the lungs, which continued nearly an hour ; and then he ex- 
pired, — probably without any sense of pain, as it was without 
the least motion of any limb or part of the body." 

So one of the heroes of the Revolution escaped the 
perils of war, to die by an accident at home. 

Meantime there was a boy growing up on one of the 
hills just southwest of the village who was to make a 
reputation for himself that would be national. Born in 
the same year that saw the rising indignation over the 
Stamp Act, and ten years old when the war began, Eli 
Whitney was now making the beginning of his higher 
education, and was off to Yale College in 1788. In ten 
years more, at the age of thirty-three, he had made his 
cotton-gin invention ; and having given up the useless task 
of trying to reap the profit of it, was making a contract 
with the Government for firearms, and laying the foun- 
dation of the prosperous factories at Whitneyville. 

The disposal of the "ministerial farm" of 17 10, which 



THE MINISTERIAL FARM. 1 93 

was now the joint property of Westborough and North- 
borough, had for some time been a question of consider- 
able perplexity. Northborough was disposed to claim a 
part of it for its own minister; and in September, 1768, 
the selectmen were directed to inquire " whether the min- 
ister in Northborough has any right to the ministerial 
land in Westborough." At the March meeting in 1770 
a committee was appointed to survey the land, — doubt- 
less with the idea that it might some day be sold ; and 
this committee made report to the town, May 21, as 
follows : — 

"The Line next to Fessenden's is 108 rods in Length, but by 
the old plan is set down 80; ye Southwest angle by the old plan 
is 24 Rods, but by our Messuer turns out but 14 Rods ; the 
South next to Beaton's and Burns' is set down in the old plan 
80 Rods, and we find by the Chan it is 96 Rods. The Easte 
Line Towards ye South Easte corner by the old plan is 48 Rods, 
by our Measuer is 53 Rods ; the other three angles agree nearly 
with the old Plan ; the North Line, called by the old Plan 56 
Rods, but will not hold out but 30 rods and a half : so we find 
but 32 acers and 16 rod in the whole." 

This was the measurement of the section west of Chauncy 
Pond, which was called in the original grant from the 
Proprietors of Marlborough " forty acres of upland and 
swamp ; " there was also the ten-acre meadow lot near 
Hobomoc Pond. 

We hear nothing more of this land until 1782, when 
action is taken twice, in January and December, by the 
appointment of committees to confer with Northborough 
in regard to its equitable division. Nothing is, however, 
accomplished until Jan. 12, 1784, when the sale is actually 
made, and the first and larger lot goes to Jacob Broaders, 
and the other to Thaddeus Fay. The proceeds were of 



194 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

course divided between the two towns, and that which 
fell to Westborough was set apart under the name of the 
" Parsonage Fund," and the income of it applied to the 
support of preaching. In August of the same year 
the town voted to buy some land around the meeting- 
house from the heirs of Mr. Parkman, in order to en- 
large the common. It was bought for twenty-three dollars 
an acre, and a wall was built around the common, three 
and a half feet wide at the base, and four feet and four 
inches high. A little later there was a grant of land for 
sheds near the meeting-house. 

There is little else on record concerning the life of the 
town for some time, except in matters ecclesiastical. 
There was a vote at the March meeting in 1786 to dispose 
of the paper money in the treasurer's office at the rate 
of 4s. per $100, — which shows the sad fate which be- 
falls an inflated currency. In December, 1787, the insur- 
gents in what was called " Shays's Rebellion " made an 
outbreak at Worcester and at Springfield. Westborough 
passed a vote disapproving of the measures taken by 
them, as it had in 1765 expressed its disapprobation of 
the " Rioatous Assemblies and unlawful acts of Violence " 
in connection with the Stamp Act. The town had so well 
imbibed the true idea of free civil government that while 
it was willing to sacrifice to the utmost for civil liberty, 
it would countenance nothing unlawful or disorderly, even 
in the name of liberty. No higher praise than this could 
be given to any civil body. 

In 1785 the growth of the town required a new adjust- 
ment of the school districts. In 1742 there had been 
apparently but three districts in the whole town, which 
at that time included Northborough. Then came the 
long period of uncertainties, resulting in the division of 



OLD SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 195 

the town. In 1765 the first effort had been made to 
" squadron " the town, and the system then adopted had 
lasted essentially for the twenty years following. But at 
this time the matter was taken up again, and numerous 
town meetings were held before any agreement could be 
reached, on account of the conflicting interests of differ- 
ent sections and families. A good many wished to have 
nine squadrons, and it was only by a small majority that 
it was at last voted to have six, as follows: No. 1, in the 
centre; No. 2, westerly, toward Grafton; No. 3, easterly, 
toward Marlborough; No. 4, northerly; No. 5, south- 
erly, toward Upton ; No. 6, the " Flanders road." The 
only real change effected by this action was the separa- 
tion of the Flanders from the east squadron, to be a 
district by itself. But in 1789 a new division was made, 
resulting in what was essentially the district system, which 
has survived to the present generation A few changes 
were made in 1836, but they were unimportant. 

Inasmuch as the report of the squadroning committee 
of 1789 contains a complete list of the families in town at 
the time, as well as the situation of the several school- 
houses, it is herewith subjoined. 

Report of Committee chosen to Squadron out the Town. 
The Report of ye above Committee is as follows ; viz. — 

Gentlemen, — We your Committee have attended the Busi- 
ness for which we weare appointed, and after considering the 
Situation of our inhabitants have divided them out into Squad- 
rons as within mentioned, & pitched upon places for the School 
Houses to stand on in each squadron unless any squadron shall 
agree to sett them other where ; also that the money which shall 
be granted for Schooling be Divided According to the Number 
of Families in each squadron, & that Flander Squadron so called, 
remain as they are. 



196 



EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



First Squadron. 
Joseph Baker, Esq. William Wood. 



John Baker. 
Col. Nathan Fisher. 
Dea. Benjamin Wood. 
James Hawes, Esq. 
Stephen Maynard. 
Elijah Brigham. 



Capt. Daniel Reed. 
Col. Moses Wheelock. 
Isaac Ruggles. 
Ebenezer Gay. 
Doct. David Taintor. 
Breck Parkman. 



Oliver Nason. 

The school house to stand between the meeting house & Doct. 
Taintor's on the south side of the road. 



Abijah Gale. 
Capt. Edmund Brigham. 
Solomon Leonard. 
Samuel Bellows. 
Asa Forbush. 
Abraham Beeman. 



Second Squadron. 

George Andrews. 
George Andrews 2 d . 
Phineas Haskell. 
Daniel Warren. 
Timothy Warren. 
The Work House. 



The school house to stand at the Great road, at the End of 
Asa Forbush's Lane. 



Third Squadron. 



Jonathan Forbes. 
Capt. Jonathan Fay. 
Lieut. Joshua Grout. 
Joseph Grout. 
Enoch Greenwood. 
Lieut. Benjamin Fay. 
Jeduthun Fay. 
Eli Whitney. 
Elijah Hardy. 
Thomas Twitchel. 



Thomas Twitchel 
Shadrach Miller. 
Daniel Robbins. 
Phineas Brigham. 
John Fay. 
Elijah Whitney. 
Daniel Nurse. 
Jonathan Child. 
Aaron Sherman. 
Widow Brigham. 



The school house to stand between the end of Elijah Hardy's 
lane and the top of the Hill toward Lt. Grout's. 



OLD SCHOOL DISTRICTS. 197 

Fourth Squadron. 

Ensign Rufus Forbush. Isaac Adams. 

" James Miller. Stephen Bathrick. 

Joseph Harrington. John Ball. 

John Harrington. Martin Pratt. 

Benjamin Ball. Lt. James Bowman. 

Benjamin Bowman. 

The school house to stand at the end of Mr. Bowman's lane. 

Fifth Squadron. 

Lieut. Thomas Morse. Aaron Fisher. 

Capt. Seth Morse. Butler & Mellen. 

Eben Miller. David Morse. 

Ensign Aaron Warren. Asahel Biglow. 

" Elisha Forbes. Widow Biglow. 

Benjamin Harrington. Moses Pike. 

Stephen Cook. Phineas Forbes. 

The school house to stand at the end of Lt. Thomas 
Morse's lane where it meets the Upton road, between Mr. Eben 
Miller's and Ensign Warren's. 

Sixth Squadron. 

Phineas Gleason. Thaddeus Warren. 

Ezra Beeker. Capt. J. Godfrey. 

Eleazer Rider. Samuel Fisher. 

Isaac Cody. Lt. Isaac Parker. 

Joseph Green. Ebenezer Maynard. 

Samuel Fay. Jonathan Maynard. 

Gershom Brigham. John Beeton. 

Amasa Maynard. Capt. S. Maynard. 

Elisha Rice. Beriah Ware. 

Samuel Rice. John Fessenden. 

Lt. Joseph Bond. Benjamin Warren. 
Edward Cobb. 

The school house to remain where it now stands, between the 
top of the Hill and the River. 



198 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Seventh Squadron. 

Lieut. Antipas Brigham. Jonathan Bathrick. 

David Brigham. Solomon Bathrick. 

Abraham Bond. Samuel Forbush. 

Richard Barnes. Ebenezer Forbush. 

Richard Barnes Jr. Thomas Andrews. 

David Bathrick. Lieut. Solomon Maynard. 
Daniel Wight. 

The school house to stand between Mr. Abraham Bond's and 
Jonathan Bathrick's. 

Flanders Squadron. 

Samuel Bellows. Joseph Belknap 2 d . 

Stephen Belknap. Seth Woods. 

Daniel Chamberlain. Nathaniel Fay. 

William Johnson. Reuben Bellows. 

Elijah Snow. Eben. Chamberlain. 

Adonijah Rice. Daniel North. 

The above Report being accepted, the Meeting was dissolved. 
{Signed) Elijah Brigham, Moderator. 

A new phase of the pauper question occurred in 1790, 
when the workhouse, built in 1767, was sold ; and for the 
next quarter of a century the paupers were disposed of by 
being annually set up at auction, and knocked down to 
the lowest bidder. This saved the town some money, but 
was not particularly creditable to its humanity. Subse- 
quently they were all kept by Mr. Levi Bowman, who 
lived on the Upton road, until the Daniel Chamberlain 
place was purchased for a town farm, in 1825. 

During the six years following the death of Mr. Park- 
man, both town and church were continually agitated in 
regard to securing a successor. The town had voted, two 
weeks after the funeral, to provide £16 12s. id. to pay for 



SEEKING A NEW MINISTER. 1 99 

the funeral expenses, and " to continue the Salary of our 
late Rev. pastor deceased for nine Sabbaths after his 
decease," if the pulpit is supplied by the neighboring 
ministers. At the same meeting it was voted " that the 
Committee be directed to provide Sum person of a Good 
Carracter to preach the gospel to us in this town." A fast 
was held to pray for a minister on the 20th of March fol- 
lowing, and in August it was voted " to give a privelege to 
all that is 21 years of age to vote for the choice of a min- 
ister." This was a step of more importance than at first 
appears, for it was the death-knell of the old and tenacious 
custom of requiring church membership as a qualification 
for voting in town affairs. And it is also worthy of note 
that the church, at a meeting the next October, voted to 
discontinue " the half-way covenant," — a measure which 
had been adopted as a compromise by the churches of 
that day, to allow some who were not ready to become 
members of the church in full standing to have a pseudo- 
relation to it which might give them a voice in civil matters. 
The effect of it had always been disastrous to the church, 
and the disuse of it was a long step forward, both for 
church and state. 

Meantime the town was taking measures to secure a 
new minister after a manner peculiar to the time. On the 
20th of July, 1783, Adoniram Judson, afterward settled 
in Plymouth, where he is buried, preached in the West- 
borough meeting-house. The town thereupon voted to 
hear him longer " on probation." 

Thereupon for two months the young man stood up 
Sunday after Sunday, to be scanned and listened to with 
critical intent. That ought to have been long enough, 
one would think ; but at the end of the probation, Septem- 
ber 22d, the town, liking the sport, voted " to hear him 



200 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

four Sabbaths more." That ordeal was over at last, and he 
might have hoped for an issue to all his trials ; but the 
vote in October was simply " to hear him farther," with 
the somewhat sarcastic addition, " with a view to settle- 
ment." It must have looked like a dissolving "view" to 
him, and how long he held himself as the target for the 
indeterminate shafts of criticism is uncertain. He did 
preach two Sundays in the following February, and a 
church meeting was called for March 16, " to see if they 
will call him." Nothing came of that, however; but the 
following week at another church-meeting, at which thirty 
were present, he was called by a vote of twenty-two to 
eight, and a committee was appointed to wait on the 
selectmen and ask the town to call a meeting to see if it 
would concur. This began to look as though the nine 
months' trial might bear fruit; but the town-meeting held 
April 12 not only failed to concur in calling him, but 
added the unnecessary odium of passing over the article. 

Meantime, on the 20th of October, 1783, the church had 
introduced the question whether any future minister should 
have the veto-power; and though the article was passed 
over, — perhaps out of regard to the feelings of the Park- 
man family, — it was becoming evident that it would 
not do for any younger man, who would be a stranger 
among them, to aspire to that position of authority 
which they had tolerated, though not without protest, in 
their old minister. 

The next candidate for the vacant pulpit was Edmund 
Mills, who began to preach in May, 1784, and at a meet- 
ing of the town, August 20, was invited " to preach eight 
Sabbaths more, with a view to settling." On the 26th of 
September a fast was held by the church in relation to the 
subject of a minister, at which the churches in Shrewsbury, 



THE CALL OF THE SECOND MINISTER. 201 

Grafton, Upton, Hopkinton, and Northborough assisted. 
Mr. Mills was consulted with regard to his opinions con- 
cerning the subject of the ministerial veto and baptism, 
with a result that was satisfactory. The church called him 
on the 2 1st of October by twenty-nine votes; there being 
thirty-four present, and no one voting in the negative. 
On November 8 the town concurred by a strong vote, 
and offered ^270 as "settlement," and .£90 in silver 
money, at the rate of six shillings per ounce, as salary. 
But this time it was the candidate who was unwilling, 
and Mr. Mills declined to come. The town was very 
desirous of securing him, and voted, November 28th, to 
ask him to supply the pulpit still, and to settle, if he could 
be persuaded to do so ; but without avail. 

Col. Moses Wheelock and others then tried to put for- 
ward Mr. Judson again, but did not succeed in persuading 
the town. Thus matters stood for nearly a year longer ; 
when in the summer of 1786 Mr. Judson was hired as a 
supply, and # on September 6 the church again called him; 
but the town refused to act, and so the matter ended, and 
the case of Mr. Judson was finally disposed of. 

To the four years already elapsed since the death of Mr. 
Parkman two more were added before the vacant pastorate 
was filled. But at length, in the summer of 1788, Mr. 
John Robinson, who came from New Haven, preached 
with general approval ; and having, as they fancied, learned 
wisdom by experience, the people did not wait so long 
as heretofore, nor require so long a candidature, but 
made a leap in the dark which they afterward had con- 
siderable leisure to repent of. The church called him 
September 29, and the town unanimously ratified the call 
on the 13th of October. The salary was fixed at £80, — 
a portion of which was provided for from the interest of 



202 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the "Parsonage Fund," — together with twenty cords of 
wood a year. ^200 was granted as a " settlement." On 
the 30th of November his answer accepting the call was 
read to the church. 

Thereupon the people, with an eagerness whetted by 
six years of waiting, and by the fact that there had been 
no such notable occasion in the town for sixty-four years, 
proceeded to make preparations for an ordination. First, 
the town appointed Jan. 14, 1789, as the great day. 
Two days later the church confirmed the action by call- 
ing a council for that date, and appointing Dea. Benjamin 
Wood, Elijah Brigham, Dea. James Hawes, Abijah Gale, 
and Joseph Harrington a committee to make the arrange- 
ments. It was now the middle of December, and the 
preparations went on apace. The town, in view of the 
fact that something stronger than water would flow with 
unusual freedom on such an occasion, deemed it wise to 
appoint a strong committee of fifteen, headed by the con- 
stable, in all the dignity of office, to " keep the doors of 
the house, and see that there is no disturbance," and an- 
other to see that the house, likely to be crowded to its 
utmost capacity, is " properly propt up." The " body 
seats on the women's side " were reserved for the council, 
and " the men's body seats " for the church. Further, not 
having quite the modern conveniences of mails, the town 
voted " to send to New Haven for Mr. Robinson's dis- 
mission from that church, and the selectmen to procure 
somebody to go as soon as may be." 

On the day appointed the council met, and proceeded 
with its duties. It was composed of the following churches : 

The Church of Christ in Shrewsbury, the Rev. Joseph Sumner. 
The Church of Christ in Upton, the Rev. Elisha Fish. 
The Church of Christ in Milford, the Rev. Amariah Frost. 



INSTALLATION OF JOHN ROBINSON. 203 

The Church of Christ in Northborough, the Rev. Peter Whitney. 
The Church of Christ in Marlborough, the Rev. Asa Packard. 
The Church of Christ in Southborough [vacant]. 
The Church of Christ in Grafton [vacant] . 
The Church of Christ in Hopkinton [vacant]. 
The Church of Christ in Franklin, the Rev. Nathaniel 
Emmons, D.D. 

The Church of Christ in Yale College, the Rev. Mr. Wales. 
The Church of Christ in Medway, the Rev. David Sanford. 
The Church of Christ in Berlin, the Rev. Reuben Puffer. 
The Church of Christ in Mendon, the Rev. Caleb Alexander. 
The Church of Christ in Southington, Ct. 
The Church of Christ in Lebanon, Ct. 

After the usual preliminaries the services of installation 
proceeded. Mr. Alexander, of Mendon, made the opening 
prayer ; Dr. Emmons preached the sermon ; David Sanford 
offered the ordaining prayer ; Mr. Fish, of Upton, gave the 
charge to the pastor; Mr. Sumner, of Shrewsbury, gave the 
right hand of fellowship ; and Mr. Puffer, of Berlin, offered 
the closing prayer; " and," says the record, " Mr. Robinson 
was ordained." That meant much; but fortunately the 
good people as yet were ignorant how much. 

Mr. Robinson was given possession of the farm now 
known as the Whitney place, which he afterward sold to 
Mr. Josiah Bond, and he, in turn, to Major John Fayer- 
weather. Here the parson settled down for what was then 
expected to be a life-long residence, and the ecclesiastical 
machinery once more settled into its routine. 

The beginning of a new ecclesiastical administration was 
to some extent fruitful, as is usual, in changes of method. 
The first indication of this was in the regular appointment 
of the communion service, which had hitherto been a varia- 
ble feast, for the second Sunday of each alternate month, 
beginning with February. The length of the intermission 



204 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

on Communion Sundays was fixed, in 1791, at two hours. 
There was some improvement on foot in the singing also. 
The Tate and Brady collection had been in use since 1771, 
with some fugitive hymns of Watts. Since 1781 there had 
been, as we have seen, something like a choir. In 1789 
there was an article in the warrant for the March meeting 
" to see if it Be the minds of this Town to have Dr. 
Watts' Psalms sung in the town," and the town voted " to 
have Dr. Watses Salms & Hymns sung in the Congrega- 
tion." In 1 791 the church nominated to the selectmen 
certain persons to lead the singing, and requested them to 
insert an article in the warrant in regard to encouraging 
singing by hiring a singing-master. Some years before, 
in 1784, the space in the meeting-house allotted to the 
singers had been enlarged, the men to have " the women's 
front gallery," and " the women singers the side gallery 
as far as to the ally that goes out at the east door." No 
change was made at this time in regard to this arrange- 
ment ; only the singers were requested " to attend public 
worship seasonable." 

The old custom of lining out the hymns was still in 
vogue here. Worcester had dispensed with it in 1779, 
though at the cost of a struggle. The Sunday after the 
church there had voted to discontinue the custom, it is re- 
lated that Deacon Chamberlain, to whom the duty of lining 
out had fallen, went to church resolved to die hard. When 
the hymn was given out, he read the first line, as usual. 
The choir sang it, but made no stop after it. He raised 
his voice and read on. The choir sang on ; and they 
having the advantage of numbers and volume, he was soon 
overpowered, and seizing his hat, left the church in tears. 
The worst of it was that the majority could not be content 
with their victory, but must needs put the poor deacon 



CHANGES IN CHURCH USAGES. 205 

under censure, and suspend him from the communion for a 
long time, for " absenting himself from the public services 
of the Sabbath ! " 

Westborough, more conservative, kept the custom till 
18C4, but dispensed with it then by vote of the town, 
without any serious convulsions following. 

Another change, agitated, but not carried out in 1791, 
had regard to the reading of " relations " of experience and 
belief by candidates for admission to the church. Thus 
far the church, in common with most others in New Eng- 
land, had propounded no creed to its candidates for ad- 
mission. They had, presumably, been instructed in the 
catechism, but farther than that they had only to assent to 
the covenant prepared by Mr. Parkman. But at a later 
period, perhaps only since his death, they had been re- 
quired to write out something like an individual confession 
of faith. One of these recitals of belief, dating from that 
period, has been preserved, and may be of sufficient inter- 
est to students of the growth of forms in the churches of 
New England to warrant us in bringing it from its sacred 
privacy to the light of day. It is as follows : — 

I desire to bless God that I was born in a land of Gospel light, 
and have been favored with a preached gospel ; but I would 
lament the mis-improvement I have made of my time and oppor- 
tunities. And I desire to bless God that He has been pleased 
to shew me that I am a sinner, and that the name of Christ alone 
is to be trusted for salvation. As to the Articles of my Faith, — 
I believe there is one God in three persons, the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost ; and that the Scriptures were given by divine in- 
spiration ; and that all men are enslaved under sin, being fallen 
from God, and are justly condemned by His holy law. I believe 
Jesus Christ was constituted by the Father to be a Saviour to all 
believers ; and that the ordinances are of divine appointment ; 
and that the Supper was instituted to be a standing memorial 
of the death and sufferings of my Blessed Lord. And I desire, 



206 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

with a penitent and believing heart, to wait on God in His Ordi- 
nance, and to bless God that I was born of Christian parents, by 
whom I was early dedicated to Him in Baptism, and now would 
take my baptismal engagement on myself, and desire admit- 
tance to full Communion with the Church of God in this place ; 
and ask your prayers to God for me that I may be a worthy 
partaker at the table of the Lord. 

{Signed) Antipas Brigham. 

"Westborough, October 16, 1785. 

In 1793 Mr. William Johnson was granted "land for a 
noon-house, fifteen feet long and two rod wide ; s'd land 
is beyond ye pound." The pound stood near the present 
site of Bates's straw-factory. Here was built a small house, 
octagonal in shape, with a generous fireplace in it, where 
those who came to church from a distance could eat their 
dinner and warm themselves after the long, cold service in 
a church without a fire. It seems to have been removed 
afterward, perhaps in 18 15, to the site of the blacksmith's 
shop across the railroad, and was taken down in 1818, after 
the need of it had ceased. 

This brings us to the close of the eighteenth century. 
We have seen the town grow from its first beginnings to 
comparative prosperity and an honorable position among 
the towns of the county. If it has had less share than 
some of the coast-towns in the political events of the cen- 
tury, it is only because of its position in what was then a 
remote interior. When its expression of opinion in regard 
to the pressing issues of the times has been asked for, 
it has been expressed with no uncertain sound. When 
action or sacrifice has been called for, it has responded 
with an alacrity and a devotion to the common weal that 
need fear no comparisons. In the counsels of the formative 
period that followed the Revolution it has been cool and 
wise, and has stood fast by the principles of civil liberty. 



PERIOD OF TRANSITION. 20"J 

If the church has seemed to be the most prominent insti- 
tution of the town throughout the preceding pages, it is 
only because it was so in fact and in the thoughts of the 
men and women of that time. 

We come now to a period of more rapid progress in 
material affairs. The coaching days are just at hand, and 
the railroad is not far off. The old church, which has 
been so large a part of the town, is soon to have its rivals. 
New institutions, the institutions of the nineteenth century, 
are coming; business is to find its entrance to a wider 
sphere ; and rapid changes will transform the Puritan town 
into the New England village, with its surrounding farms. 
The period which it has been most desirable to embalm 
in a permanent record, has been already treated. The 
more modern life may be told in briefer form, for the 
greater part of it is not beyond the reach of living 
memories. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ITEMS OF PROGRESS. — ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. — THE 
BEGINNING OF MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 

THE beginning of the new century saw some improve- 
ments in the equipment of the town. Samuel, the 
twelfth child of the Rev. Mr. Parkman, went to Boston 
and entered mercantile life there. He prospered well ; and 
in 1 80 1, when he was fifty years old, he remembered his 
native town by the present of a bell. Thus far no spire or 
tower of any kind had risen above the humble roofs of the 
village. In 1722 the town had voted, evidently in a some- 
what spiteful temper, not to build a steeple on the meeting- 
house, and not to do it even without expense to the town. 
But now the time had come when the building of some 
kind of tower was not merely a matter of vain ornament, 
distressing to the Puritan soul, but a sheer necessity; and 
without more discussion the town voted, May 4, 1801, "to 
build a belfry, or steeple, to be set at the west end of the 
meeting house." At the same meeting a vote of thanks 
to Mr. Parkman was passed. In the following November 
rules were adopted for the ringing of the bell, as fol- 
lows : " On Sabbath day morning the bell to ring at 9^ 
o'clock ; second bell at twenty minutes past ten o'clock, 
to ring five minutes; then stop from three to five min- 
utes, or till the minister is in sight; then toll till he gets 
into the pulpit." This tolling of the bell, which is now 
a mere customary form, was then the measured accom- 






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NEW FEATURES IN THE MEETING-HOUSE. 209 

paniment of the minister's approach to his pulpit, and 
the announcement to the congregation, at its beginning 
that he was on the way, and by its cessation that he had 
arrived and the hour of solemnity had actually begun. 

It was six years after the present of the bell, — in No- 
vember, 1807, — that the town voted leave to certain indi- 
viduals to ring the bell every night at nine o'clock at their 
own expense ; thus originating the custom that has come 
down to contemporary times. This same bell is now in 
the belfry of the Baptist church. In 1837 the old meeting- 
house passed into private ownership, and the bell, which 
really belonged by gift to the town, was sold with it. The 
same year it was loaned to the Baptists, and about 1849 
they purchased it. 

In 1806 a clock was procured by individual subscrip- 
tions and presented to the town. This also went with the 
old meeting-house when it was sold, but was purchased by 
the town in 1842, and put in the new town-hall. 

In 1809 there began to be talk about a church organ; 
and at length, in November of that year, the town voted 
" that Guardner Parker be allowed to place the organ in 
the meeting-house on the following conditions ; viz., that 
said Parker be allowed to cut the ends of the seats in the 
front Gallery so as to let the organ in, and leave room for 
people to pass into their seats ; and to repair the same 
decently ; the organ to remain there six months ; then if 
the Town does not like to have it remain there any longer, 
said Parker is to take it away, and to repair and make good 
every part of the meeting-house that he has altered, the 
same as before any alteration was made as aforesaid." 
This was a very early introduction of the organ as an aid 
to church music, and Westborough was never afterward 
without one. 



210 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

A military company was organized about the same time, 
which afterward attained to some local fame, and con- 
tained in its ranks some of the cream of the community. 
The war with Great Britain, commonly called the War of 
1 8 12, began soon after, and the company was ordered to 
Boston. It was still in camp there in 1814, and some im- 
portant church meetings had to be postponed on account 
of the absence of prominent members who belonged to the 
company. 

The necessity in 18 10 of purchasing a new burial-lot is 
a way-mark in the growth of the town. The one lying 
between South and School streets was bought in that year, 
and was the principal one in use from that time until 1844, 
when the present cemetery was opened. Thus far the 
only burial-ground for the later Westborough, or for the 
south parish of the old town, had been the one now oppo- 
site the town-hall. This dates back to the early part of 
the seventeenth century. For a long time the dead were 
borne to their resting-place on a bier. The first hearse, 
and the first building to keep it in, date from 1801. While 
Northborough and Westborough were one, there was a 
common burial-spot, situated near the present North- 
borough road, on the first cross-road leading to the right 
beyond the Westborough line. It is now wholly grown up 
with trees and underbrush ; but a few names of the earlier 
settlers can still be read. These are : Mr. Adam Holloway, 
Sr., who "Dec' 1 June ye 7th, 1733, in ye 80th year of his 
age ; " Joseph Wheeler, his wife Elizabeth, and their son 
Aaron, all of whom were buried in 1747 and 1748. It is a 
pity that this old burial-place should be left to the rapid 
obliteration of time and neglect. It is in the territory of 
Northborough, it is true; but Westborough has a vital 
interest in it, and by the action of the two towns some 



ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. 211 

fitting care might be given to it, by which its preserva- 
tion to future generations would be insured. 

The other old cemetery, opposite the town-hall, has had 
its vicissitudes. A powder-house was built in the corner 
of it in 1818, and stood there till 1849. Another building, 
originally the school-house of the first district, has been 
erected within its limits, and its original boundaries have 
been changed in other ways. Not far from the time 
of the building of the powder-house it was proposed to 
cut down the oak-trees for firewood; but Mr. Charles 
Parkman earned the thanks of succeeding generations by 
purchasing the trees himself, and giving them as a sacred 
legacy to posterity. At a later day many of the old stones 
were removed from the graves they marked, and piled 
up in the rear corner of the lot, — to the great regret of 
all good citizens. The recent formation of an Historical 
Society in the town is the best assurance yet presented 
that all such valuable relics of the past shall have due 
respect paid them in the future. 

It was in the first years of the new century that both the 
church and the town were greatly disturbed by a conflict 
which was peculiar to the time when ministers were settled 
for life, and owned their freehold. Mr. John Robinson had 
been installed in 1789, as we have seen, with great cere- 
mony. Thereafter very little is recorded of him until the 
outbreak of great dissatisfaction in 1806. He lacked both 
the wisdom and the spirit of his honored predecessor, and 
proved at last the worst investment the town had ever made. 
The origin of the difficulty lay in his very outspoken utter- 
ances on political subjects when party spirit was running 
high. After the Revolution there came to be a good deal 
of difference of opinion as to the basis of popular gov- 
ernment. There were those who felt the necessity of a 



212 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

strongly centralized government, with abundant power to 
enforce order ; while, on the other hand, a large portion of 
the people, having had the taste of a broader liberty, were 
inclined to emphasize State rights and more popular rule. 
Washington, Adams, and Hamilton represented the former, 
and their party came to wear the name of " Federalists ; " 
while the opposing party, of whom the most prominent 
representative was Jefferson, was called, first Republican, 
and afterward Democratic. The period was one of much 
political turmoil. The French Revolution began in the 
year 1789, and its influence was felt far and wide. In 180 1 
Jefferson was chosen President, and the Democrats became 
the party in power. Four years later, when he was re- 
turned for a second term, there was naturally a good deal 
of excitement. It was in this year, at a town meeting or a 
popular gathering on the Fourth of July, that parson Rob- 
inson destroyed his influence over the good people of West- 
borough. In a strong speech, not marked for self-restraint, 
he advocated stiff Federalist opinions, and paid his respects 
to the Democrats in language unmistakable, calling them, 
among other things, " knights of the halter." The major- 
ity were probably his political opponents, and the others 
saw that he had gone too far. There followed a sharp de- 
bate pro and con; but the deed was done, and the parson's 
fate was settled. They did not move with rapidity in those 
days, especially against a minister of the Gospel; but in 
December, 1806, a petition, signed by twenty-nine men, 
was presented in town-meeting, looking toward his dismis- 
sion. The town forthwith appointed a committee to wait 
on him and ascertain on what terms he would agree to 
leave; for in those days the people were accustomed to 
put themselves under contract to keep and support their 
minister until he died, and they could only get rid of him 



ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. 213 

thereafter by his own consent. But in this instance the 
minister fell somewhat unwarily into the trap by promptly 
naming his terms, which were as promptly accepted; and 
as a venerable citizen, who remembered the excitement in 
his youthful days, once said to me, "he was forthwith made 
to sign his own warrant for dismission." He was to be 
regularly dismissed by council in nine months; he was to 
retain his " settlement money," which was ^"200 ; and he 
was to receive his salary to the end of his time of service. 
The town indorsed the action of the committee in accept- 
ing his terms, and then, at a meeting held Jan. 8, 1807, 
asked the church, which had as yet taken no action, to 
concur. After a good deal of delay it did so in the follow- 
ing September, and the town hastened to support its ac- 
tion by a very large majority. The dismissing council was 
appointed for the 1st of October following, and advised the 
confirmation of the action already taken. On the same 
day the church gave a formal letter of dismission to Mr. 
Robinson and his wife, which was signed " John Robinson, 
pastor, in the name and by a vote of the brethren ; " and 
the pastor formally " signified his acquiescence with the 
Church and Town in his dismission from the work of the 
Gospel Ministry in this place." At half-past eleven in 
the morning the church, having transacted this business, 
adjourned till one o'clock in the afternoon. The council 
was still in session when they reassembled, but in due 
time came in with its report, as thus chronicled in the 
records : — 

At half past three o'clock p. m. October the first, One Thou- 
sand Eight Hundred and seven, the Council went into the Meet- 
ing House, where the result of the Council was read, and the 
Moderator of the Council called upon the Church to know if 
they accepted the result of the Council, which passed in the 



214 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

affirmative. He then asked the pastor if he acquiesced, which 
he signified that he did. 

Attest : John Robinson, Pastor. 

So ended the first act in the Robinson drama, and the 
people breathed freely, not knowing the sequel. 

No very long time intervened between the dismission 
of Mr. Robinson and the settlement of the Rev. Elisha 
Rockwood, whose memory remains in honor to this 
day, and whose pastorate was the last which was con- 
nected with the official action of the town. He was called 
in May, 1 808. The town, having concurred with the 
church in extending the call, appointed a committee to 
see what "encouragement" it would be proper for the 
town to give him. They offered him, for the first year, 
$1,000, and for his annual salary thereafter $600. And 
then, with painful remembrance of the recent troubles, 
they tried to provide against their recurrence by inserting 
a proviso in the call that he " shall take up his connection 
with this people whenever two thirds of the voters shall 
request it, and have the right to leave the people when he 
chooses, on condition of refunding to the town $400," 
the amount of " settlement money," twelve months' notice 
being required in either case. But in July this action was 
wisely revoked, and the settlement made without limita- 
tion. In September he sent a favorable reply, and prepa- 
rations began for the ordination, which, as before, was to 
be " an high day." It was to be on the 26th of October; 
and the town appointed a committee " to preserve order 
and to secure the meeting house" against damage. In 
addition to the features of previous occasions, a band of 
music was engaged, which preceded the procession from 
the hotel to the church, opening ranks on arrival at the 
church for the passage of the dignitaries. 



ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. 21 5 

The pastorate of Mr, Rockwood, though eminently suc- 
cessful, was destined to have serious disturbances. The 
first came in the shape of a sequel to the Robinson 
episode. This crabbed member of the church militant, 
angry that another should have his place, tried to wreak 
a petty and puerile vengeance on the young pastor. In 
1 8 14 the matter became so serious that Deacon Chamber- 
lain presented charges before the church, calling for an 
ecclesiastical trial of the former pastor. The record is as 
follows : — 

1814, Aug. 10. 

After lecture the church was stayed to hear a communication, 
of which the following is a copy : — 

" Westboro', August 8th, 18 14. 
" To the Chh. of Christ in Westborough. 

" It is with deep regret that the conduct of Mr. John Robin- 
son, once Pastor of the Chh. of Christ in Westborough, hath been 
such as to constrain the Subscriber to state to you the following 
misdemeanors and offences against the rules of Christianity 
which he hath been guilty of. 

« 1. Of writing & sending me two Letters which were highly 
abusive not only to me, but to the Chh. and others, & were inde- 
cent and unchristian, for the particulars of which, I refer to the 
letters, one dated December 9th, 1809, and the other Feb. 19, 

1810. 

" 2. Of incommoding Mrs. Chamberlain in her own seat in time 
of public worship, & by rude & indecent behaviour in the house 
of God in time of Public worship at sundry times; insulting 
& disturbing Judge Brigham's family & others in time of public 
worship by his behaviour in the hind seat, after having been 
repeatedly requested to desist; in disturbing the wife of Mr. 
David Fay at the communion in February last; of making 
unnecessary disturbance in time of public worship by scraping 
or thumping his shoes or boots by the side of his pew before he 
entered in, so as to cause the speaker to stop at two different 



2l6 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

times in the month of February last ; Of making a disturbance 
in time of Public worship by stepping out of his pew into the 
broad alley, and with his tools making a place for his inkstand 
on the 19th of June last. 

" 3. His uniformly attending public worship at a very late hour. 

" For these offences, which are all aggravated by the consid- 
eration of the office he once sustained in the church, every lover 
of the rules of Christianity & friend of Chh. discipline has rea- 
son to be offended and grieved." 

(Signed) Daniel Chamberlain. 

All the charges were sustained in the trial by a vote of 
about twenty to one or two. There was no doubt what- 
ever about their correctness, and there seems to have been 
no more than one, besides the redoubtable Robinson him- 
self, — who was present at the meetings and voted on his 
own case, — who cared to oppose the verdict. All regard 
for the man had long since vanished, and not even the 
deep respect which at that time prevailed for the office he 
had formerly held availed much in his behalf. It is related 
on the authority of a venerable man, not long since de- 
ceased, who as a boy was an interested witness of these 
proceedings, that at a town-meeting held in one of these 
years the question of keeping the organ in church came 
up; whereupon one citizen remarked that he had noticed 
that Mr. Robinson, who hated the organ, never came to 
meeting till the first singing was over, and always left 
before the last hymn, — and he was of opinion that an 
instrument that had the power of casting out devils was 
worth keeping. The town seemed to agree with him, at 
least so far as to retain the instrument. During his trial 
before the church, which lasted some time, Robinson was 
twice requested by the church to refrain from partaking of 
the sacrament. He paid no attention to the request, and 
was at length peremptorily refused the bread and wine; 



ECCLESIASTICAL TRIALS. 21 7 

whereupon, nothing daunted, he brought his own, and had 
a meal by himself. At last, after a weary time and many 
church meetings, he made a " sort of oral confession," 
which was not satisfactory to the church, but which, being 
revised at a later meeting, was accepted. On the nth of 
December, 18 14, his letter of confession and a letter of 
admonition were read in public, and the church took a 
long breath. Some time after this he removed to Leba- 
non, Conn., and the trouble seemed to be well over. But 
it was only a treacherous lull in the storm. In 181 8 the 
church received a letter from the church in Lebanon, de- 
clining to accept him on the strength of a letter from this 
church, on account of his conduct while with them. Then 
came a desperate effort to get rid of the business; the 
Lebanon church insisting that the Westborough church 
must discipline him, and the Westborough church throw- 
ing back the responsibility on the other. Finally the mat- 
ter was taken before the Consociation of Windham County, 
Conn., and then before the Harmony Conference in this 
county; and it was decided that Westborough must dis- 
cipline him. Then, with the taste of the old experience 
still in their mouths, the church began to prepare for the 
unpleasant task, when, to their infinite relief, they received 
a letter from Lebanon saying that the respondent, prob- 
ably remembering too well his former experience here, had 
made confession and been received to membership, adding 
that the matter was satisfactory to Lebanon if it was to 
Westborough. The church in Westborough voted, with 
some emphasis, that it tvas satisfactory; and the clerk 
added, with pious exultation: "Thus happily was this try- 
ing case terminated; and to the Great Head of the Church 
belongs the praise ! " 

Meantime the church had been rising to a new position 



2l8 - EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and a new life under Mr. Rockwood's earnest efforts. 
After the departure of his tormentor to Connecticut the 
pastor, feeling somewhat as the Master did when Judas had 
gone out, called the church together and instituted special 
prayers and efforts, which were not fruitless in the coming 
years. It was in 1816 also that another modern feature 
of church life was initiated by a few young ladies. They 
had endeavored to interest the church in the matter of a 
Sunday-school, but were met with general and violent op- 
position. Only the pastor and two of the brethren — one 
of whom was Breck Parkman — gave them any aid or com- 
fort. But they were not disheartened, and the next year 
they determined to make a beginning. Mr. Parkman 
offered them a room in his house, and at the first appoint- 
ment they found seventy pupils waiting; and the enter- 
prise was assured, in spite of the unreasoning opposition 
of the conservative church. It was long before the church 
approved, — longer before it assumed the school as a part 
of its own work ; but the institution had come to stay, and 
its adoption was only a question of time. 

In 1827 there was a little discussion in the church on 
the new question of temperance in drink, and in March 
it voted to use no more ardent spirits at funerals or at ordi- 
nary social visits, and that it would use its influence to 
prevent the immoderate use of liquor. That was radical 
action for those days. In 1832 the town followed suit, in- 
dulging itself in the mild self-denial of refusing any longer 
to furnish rum to its paupers, except on a physician's pre- 
scription. Three years later it took a step so radical for 
that day as to need explanation, by refusing to grant licen- 
ses to sell liquor at retail or in public-houses. 

An event that was for a time of great importance was 
the building of the Boston and Worcester turnpike in 1810. 




(BhoaSu (s<M r fL4?v<X<rz^, 



THE BEGINNING OF MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 219 

It took its course, like all the turnpikes of that period, in a 
bee-line toward its point of destination, passing over all 
the hills, and scorning all obstacles. Its coming made 
an era, — the era of the stage-coach and the wayside 
tavern. Scores of coaches used to rattle by in a single 
day along these great through lines, and the bustle and 
excitement at the baiting-places was great. It brought the 
outside world, with all its news and budgets, past the little 
towns that had lived without it for so long. The earliest 
tavern in Westborough was at the corner of the turnpike 
and what is now Lyman Street. In 1827 Captain Wesson 
built another, not far from the site of the old meeting- 
house ; and for a time it looked as if the old Chauncy was 
to be revived, under the less euphonious name of " Wes- 
sonville." Not long afterward, Nathan A. Fisher built a 
thread-factory near by. and Fisher & Lothrop opened 
a " store." Heretofore business had been carried on on 
a very small scale. The earliest village store was started 
by Breck Parkman, the eleventh child of the old minister, 
who was born on the 27th of January, 1749. When he 
arrived at man's estate he built a small structure be- 
tween the meeting-house and the parsonage, living in 
one part of it and conducting a small business in the 
other. This building is still in existence, on South Street, 
and is occupied by Patrick Chronican. 

Mr. Parkman afterward built a new house for himself, 
and converted the whole of the old one into a store, which 
was at a later time removed a little way up Summer 
Street. This new house, afterward enlarged and raised to 
three stories, is now the rear building of D. W. Forbes's 
sleigh-factory. Subsequently Breck Parkman and Judge 
Brigham built the store on the south side of Main Street 
(the old building now in the rear of S. M. Griggs & Co.'s 



220 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

block), and removed the business there. After their sons 
became of age they dissolved partnership, and Mr. Park- 
man built the old store formerly on the site of Post- 
office Block, where he and his sons transacted business 
for many years. A hotel was built at the centre in the 
early part of the century, on the site of the present 
Westborough Hotel, and was enlarged in 1824. It was 
first known as " Gregory's Inn," and was kept by Capt. 
Daniel Gregory, whose daughter became the wife of 
Lowell Mason. It was afterward kept for a long time 
by Dexter Brigham. 

It was quite early in the history of business growth 
that " Piccadilly," on the Hopkinton road, came into promi- 
nence as a manufacturing point, — owing to the existence 
of a good water power, — and for a time vied with the centre 
of the town in importance. But at the time of the staging 
excitement both Piccadilly and the centre seemed likely 
to become secondary to Wessonville. So long, indeed, 
as the meeting-house was at the centre, it would remain 
the gathering place for one day in the week, and retain a 
dignity that other sections lacked. But during the six 
working days it could not successfully compete with its 
rival farther north. It was off the stage route, and its 
quiet was unbroken. It only heard, far away, the rattle 
of busy life. There were both trade and manufacture at 
the new centre, but even the gossips had no more use for 
the old store, since all the news had gone away. For a 
good while this change seemed likely to be permanent ; 
but at last, in 1835, a strange iron horse went roaring 
past between the old meeting-house and the parsonage, 
the rattle of wheels and the crack of the whip died out 
along the turnpike, and the glory of Wessonville faded. 
The centre regained its natural advantages, with all the 



BEGINNING OF THE TOWN'S SECULAR LIFE. 221 

added opportunities which the railroad brought, and the 
modern era had fairly begun at last. 

Meantime, in 1825, the town ceased to act as an eccle- 
siastical parish, and the First Congregational Society was 
organized on the 14th of March. E. M. Phillips was the 
first clerk. The first recorded business had relation to the 
heating of the meeting-house, which thus far had been 
guiltless of stoves. Steps were taken toward putting them 
in soon after this ; but the evident necessity of a new 
meeting-house at an early day put a stop to the proceed- 
ings, and the good people still went cold in church, except 
for the feeble help obtained from foot-stoves. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

183O-1860. 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. — THE DIFFUSION OF 
INTELLIGENCE. 

" I ^HE coming of the railroad, and the consequent in- 
-*- crease of business and manufacture, marks the be- 
ginning of a new era ; and the period of which we have 
tried to tell the story is rapidly drawing to a close. 
There will be no more pioneer life. The quiet seclusion 
of the little town is broken up. The dominant influence 
of the old church is no longer possible, and already there 
are the beginnings of schism. No more will the old-time 
parson rule his flock from his pulpit as from a throne : 
his gown and wig are gone ; his veto power has per- 
ished ; the sceptre has fallen from his hands ; and he 
is become as other men. The old fireplaces that con- 
sumed so royally their forty cords of wood a year are 
vanishing, and will soon be only a thing to tell of. The 
bad spelling is going out of the records, and the flavor 
of the ancient days is departing. The old meeting-house 
will soon be only " The Old Arcade ; " bell and clock 
and tower will disappear; the very porches will be car- 
ried off, to be transformed into dwellings, and the habits 
of a hundred years will suffer change. Of the modern 
town another will speak ; our concern has only been with 
that vanishing period which, unless its memories are 
speedily embalmed in some permanent form, will be- 
come an unknown era. 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 223 

But there are still a few things to be noted before we 
close the record. The railroad was built as far as West- 
borough in 1834. The next July it was formally opened, 
and two fussy little engines, of English manufacture, or 
at any rate in the English style, drew the train of twelve 
cars, filled with the directors and stockholders, from Bos- 
ton to Worcester. The trip took three hours. The cars 
were small coaches of English pattern, with doors at the 
sides, and of light draught. One of the original con- 
ductors of the road, Thomas Tucker, was still living in 
Westborough but a few years ago. 

The location of the railroad seriously interfered with 
the usefulness of the old meeting-house. The society 
demanded $1,000 damages for the land taken and other 
disadvantages, but were unable to get so much. Other 
influences were also at work which hastened its disuse. 
Differences of theological opinion had for some time 
been assuming threatening proportions, and before the 
railroad came, another ecclesiastical society had been or- 
ganized. As early as 183 1 there had been some action 
taken toward the building of a new house; but the di- 
vided state of feeling rendered it impossible. In March, 
1832, a vote was passed to sell the old meeting-house, 
and a committee, of which Otis Brigham was chairman, 
was appointed to carry the vote into effect. A year 
later there were some carefully prepared proposals from 
Charles Parkman for the building of a house at his ex- 
pense, to be afterward conveyed to the society on speci- 
fied conditions, one of which was that the choice of a 
minister should always be determined by the vote of 
pews, each pew having one vote. This, in the dispute 
whether the Unitarians should be allowed a share in the 
supply of the pulpit, was too significant, and the meet- 



224 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

ing adjourned without action. The following year, when 
the division of the society had been consummated, the 
First Society voted to accept $15 a year from the town 
for the use of the meeting-house for town meetings, to 
pay part of the expense of ringing the bell, taking care 
of the clock, etc. This year stoves were actually put 
into the old house, which continued to be the place of 
worship of the First Society till 1837, when it was sold 
to Luther Chamberlain. 

The business of the place felt the coming of the rail- 
road and its facilities at once, though it did not increase 
with the rapidity of later times. In 1833 John A. Fayer- 
weather opened a store in the Elijah Burnap house, and 
a year later started a stove and tin shop on the site of 
the present Unitarian church. In 1836 he removed his 
variety store to the old Parkman building, on the north 
side of Main Street, and continued to do business there, 
with various changes in the firm, until 1858. It greatly 
astonished the good people of that day when Mr. Fayer- 
weather, in the first store he opened, undertook to sell 
meal. It was an unheard-of thing that any one should 
think of buying meal anywhere but at the mill. Every- 
body said it would be a failure ; but it proved a great 
convenience, and soon superseded the old way. 

The boot and shoe business was begun here in 1828 by 
J. B. Kimball & Co., whose first shop was on the land 
of Major Fayerweather, near the Whitney place. About 
1836 they built the brick shop at the corner of Main and 
Milk streets, where their business remained till 1859. In 
1844 the lower part of this shop was converted into a 
store, and occupied by W. L. G. Hunt, afterward by Fay 
& Brigham, Warner & Brigham, Oulton & Peters, Homan 
& Peters, Homan & Child, etc. In 1840 Daniel F. Newton 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 225 

began to manufacture boots and shoes in the factory on 
Cross Street, employing, mostly out of the shop, some 
three to four hundred workmen, and continuing the busi- 
ness there for twenty years. In 1858 George B. Brigham, 
who had been superintendent in Newton's factory for 
eight years, began to manufacture for himself, — as he 
still continues to do, though with far different methods 
and facilities from those in vogue when he began. His 
first factory was on Milk Street. 

Sleighs had been manufactured here for a long time, 
in a small way; but the first large building for the pur- 
pose dates from 1857, and business was begun in it by 
the firm of Burnap, Forbes & Co., who made about five 
hundred sleighs a year. 

As early as 1836 some movement was made toward 
the providing of a town-hall. The old meeting-house 
was still in use ; but as the First Society was anxious to 
sell it, some substitute had to be provided. There was 
some delay before the enterprise could be undertaken, 
but in 1839 it was voted to put up a building of one 
story, with a basement of brick. The work proceeded 
at once, though it was not until 1842 that the hall was 
ready for occupancy. A bell and a clock were needed, 
and Otis Brigham, Abijah Stone, and Gardner Cloyes 
were appointed a committee to provide them. The old 
meeting-house clock was to be bought, " if it can be had 
for money," and a bell must not cost over $300. The 
old clock had been sold in 1837, with the old meeting- 
house, to Luther Chamberlain, and the old bell hung in 
the belfry of the new Baptist church near by. The old 
clock was finally repurchased, and a new bell procured, 
which still does duty melodiously. 

In 1832 an attempt was made to carry a vote to pro- 



226 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

cure a fire-engine; but none was purchased until March, 
1839, for which room was provided in the basement of 
the town-hall. The town subscribed $200 toward this 
engine, provided $200 more was raised by subscription. 
It was a small affair, but lasted till the Chauncy engine 
was purchased, in 185a 

The progress of education since 1836, when the school 
districts were adopted in their modern form, has been 
marked. There was still for a time some indifference to 
the matter in the town meetings, as there always has 
been on the part of a section of the community ; and as 
late as 1844 there is recorded a refusal to have a gram- 
mar-school, for the lack of which the town had been 
" presented " nearly a hundred years before. But this 
was evidently only the last struggle of the conservative 
element against the rising tide of popular intelligence; 
for ten years later the high school came, at first as an 
ungraded school, but affording, nevertheless, advanced 
opportunities. 

As early as 1839 the better class of people had en- 
deavored to provide for their children within the limits 
of the town; and the " Westborough School Associa- 
tion" was formed, to provide better facilities than the 
town was ready to supply. They started a school, first 
at the centre, and afterward at the old Wesson tavern, 
which was refitted for the purpose. This school con- 
tinued for a good while, and had a high reputation. 

Other means of culture and the diffusion of intelli- 
gence began to come in with the growth of the century. 
The beginnings of the town library date back to the early 
part of the century. It was in 1807 that a few of the 
leading men of the town, feeling the need of some lit- 
erary privileges, began to raise the question of a library. 





'4f&^ r 00&&& 



LIBRARY. 227 

Fifteen of them met, on the 25th' of March, at " Greg- 
ory's Inn," and organized " The Union Library Society." 
The Rev. Elisha Rockwood, who came to the town in the 
following year, took a great interest in the organization, 
and was president of it from 181 1 to 1828. It was 
scarcely a popular society, its admission fees ranging 
from $5.50 to $15. Its rules of admission and its de- 
crees in regard to the care of books were very strict. 
Books were scarce and costly even then, as compared 
with the present time, and readers were much fewer. 
Persons not members were allowed the use of books at 
the reasonable rate of $2.00 a year. Meetings were held 
at first five times a year. Funds were raised by the fees 
above mentioned, and by a tax of twenty-five cents as- 
sessed on the members at each meeting. Mr. Charles 
Parkman presented several volumes to the society, and 
it purchased in addition the following: " Rees' Cyclo- 
paedia," in forty-one volumes; " Mavor's Voyages and 
Travels ; " " The Life of Washington," by Bancroft; 
" The Life of Washington," by Marshall, in six volumes, 
with atlas; two volumes " Silliman's Journal;" " Silli- 
man's Tour," and " Dwight's Travels." This society 
lasted until 1839, when it was merged in the Mechanics' 
Association. 

The latter was organized in 1838, after manufactures 
had obtained a strong footing; preceding the Mechan- 
ics' Association of Worcester by four years. It had on 
its rolls at the outset forty-six names. It purposed to 
have lecture-courses, as well as a library, and discussions 
upon current topics. Mr. George Denny gave it $40, 
and in a year from its organization it had raised $86 
more toward a library. In this same year the Union 
Library Society made over its books and property to the 



228 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

new association, on condition that such books as needed 
it should be rebound, and that the members of the old 
organization should be allowed to draw books without a 
fee. Ten years later the library contained four hundred 
and seventy-five volumes, and printed its first catalogue. 
In 1857 the library was transferred to the town, and has 
since been supported by an annual appropriation. 

The same year, 1839, saw the beginning of the West- 
borough Agricultural Society ; the farmers seeing no rea- 
son why they should not keep abreast of the mechanics 
in the means of information and discussion. The pre- 
liminary meeting is stated in the history of the society 
to have been " accidental ; " but it was united in the opin- 
ion that meetings for mutual discussion would be profi- 
table, and Nahum Fisher was thereupon chosen chairman 
of the meeting, and George Denny secretary. Commit- 
tees were at once appointed, and measures taken for 
organization; and in a few months the society was in 
active operation. Lovett Peters was the first president, 
and George Denny, Curtis Beeman, and G. C. Sanborn 
succeeded him up to i860. The original membership 
included many whose names are familiar, though only 
five or six of them are now living. 

The first attempt at a local newspaper was made here 
in 1849 by the publication of the " Westborough Messen- 
ger," a weekly quarter-sheet, edited and printed in Boston 
by C. C. P. Moody. A copy of the first issue lies before 
me. It is printed on a page nine and a half by thirteen 
and a half inches, in four columns, with only two columns 
of advertisements, headed by Samuel Griggs, dealer in 
stoves and tin-ware. This was Dr. Griggs, who had a 
store in the old brick school-house, next to Post Office 
Block. The only Westborough news is to the effect that 



STATE REFORM SCHOOL. 229 

the " Orthodox " church is being repaired, and the old 
burying-ground is to be renovated and provided with 
walks, trees, etc., the old stone wall to be removed and 
an iron fence substituted, together with the report of 
three temperance meetings in the lower town-hall, in 
which several prominent citizens figured. This news- 
paper enterprise did not prove a success, not being 
indigenous, and in a few months was suspended. 

The next aspirant for editorial honors was Benjamin 
Winslow Packard, of North Bridgewater, who published, 
Sept. 1, 1855, the first number of "The Westborough 
Sheaf." This also was printed in Boston, though the 
editorial headquarters were in Westborough. It came 
to grief in less than a year. In i860 the " Marlborough 
Journal" undertook to print a Westborough edition, to be 
called the " Westborough Transcript," of which, for the 
first eighteen months, C. H. Pierce was the local editor. 
This survived two years and a half, and was the last at- 
tempt of the kind until a printing-office was established 
in the town after the War of the Rebellion. 

In 1846 a plan was organized for a State Reform 
School for boys, and a site was chosen for it on the 
beautiful northern slope of Chauncy Pond. The Legis- 
lature authorized the expenditure of only ten thousand 
dollars; but the project of an institution that should be 
reformatory rather than penal so commended itself to 
the late Hon. Theodore Lyman that he at once gave ten 
thousand more, and subsequently, by personal gift and 
legacy, increased the amount to $72,500. It was not 
known until after his death from whom these gifts had 
come, so quietly had the matter been arranged, and so 
great was his shrinking from notoriety. But the insti- 
tution would scarcely have been possible without him; 



230 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and it is a satisfaction that at this late day, remodelled 
more in accordance with his own ideas, and in its new 
location, it has been rechristened the " Lyman School." 

The first building was erected in 1848, at an expense 
of $52,000, and had accommodation for three hundred 
boys. The first year saw three hundred and ten boys 
in the institution, and in 1852 an enlargement was made, 
so as to accommodate two hundred and fifty more. In 
1859 an inmate set fire to the buildings, which were 
nearly destroyed. The boys were temporarily removed 
to Fitchburg and Concord jails until new quarters could 
be provided. But it was felt that a sufficient discrimi- 
nation had not been made between the younger and the 
more hardened criminals, and an effort was made, by es- 
tablishing a school-ship in Boston Harbor for the worse 
cases, to conform more nearly to the original idea of 
the founders. Three houses were also provided on the 
grounds of the Reform School, where the. most trustworthy 
boys were kept, in families of twenty-five or thirty, and 
allowed a good deal of freedom. This secured better re- 
sults, and promised well for the future. It happened, 
however, in the capricious working of the political machine, 
that the school-ship was sold, the precocious criminals 
were again sent here, and the school passed through 
various vicissitudes, the recountal of which belongs to 
another part of the history. 

The superintendents in its earlier years were William 
R. Lincoln, 1848-1853 ; James M. Talcott, 1853-1857; 
William E. Starr, 1857-1861. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

OF the ecclesiastical history of Westborough since 
the rise of denominations, it is necessary to speak 
briefly. The earliest form of departure from the tradi- 
tions of the village church was the Baptist. As early as 
May 29, 1796, James Hawes, Jr., and Asa Haskell were 
immersed at Chauncy Pond by Samuel King, of the Bap- 
tist Church in Sutton. Shortly afterward there is evi- 
dence of some Methodist sentiment ; though the fact 
that it soon passed away without producing fruit in an 
organization, makes it doubtful whether it was anything 
more than a convenient method of avoiding the parish 
tax, which was required by law of all voters, unless they 
brought certificates that they belonged to some other per- 
suasion. From 1798 to 1802 Fortunatus Nichols, Joseph 
Nichols, Phineas Hardy, and Shadrach Miller were ex- 
empted on the certificate of a Methodist elder. But 
that is the last heard of Methodism for forty-two years. 
The Baptists, though for a long time very few, and sub- 
jected to much derision and indignity, held on steadily, 
and in 181 1 a society was organized, and raised a small 
sum annually to support occasional preaching. In 18 14 
a church was organized, consisting of thirty-nine mem- 
bers. Thomas Conant was the first pastor, who remained 
in service about two years, receiving for his work less 
than a hundred dollars a year, and eking out the stipend 
by farming and teaching. In 18 16 they built their first 



232 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

meeting-house, near the corner of East Main and Lyman 
streets. This was afterward removed to Woodville. Pas- 
torates were irregular and of brief duration until after 1835, 
when the new church was built upon the site of the pres- 
ent one. From this time the life of the church has been 
assured and prosperous. In 1868 the present church 
building was erected, and the old one sold to the Roman 
Catholics. A parsonage had been presented to the society 
in i860, but was afterward sold, and the present one erected 
on land given by Dea. Lyman Belknap, in 1868 or 1869. 
The longest pastorate has been that of Adiel Harvey, 
who was here from 1839 to 1845. One of the most marked 
and best remembered at the present time is that of A. N. 
Arnold, D. D., from 1858 to 1864, — a man of scholarly 
habits and fine abilities, previously Professor of Ecclesi- 
astical History in the Seminary at Newton, and after- 
ward connected with similar institutions in Hamilton and 
Chicago. In 1868, during the building of church and 
parsonage, C. W. Flanders, D. D., became the pastor, and 
remained some two years, making himself, as Dr. Arnold 
had done, an important factor in town as well as church, 
beloved of all. Ill-health compelled him to retire after 
this brief term. 

The pastorates of the church have been as follows : — 

Thomas Conant, 1814-1816. 

William Bowen, 1831-1833. 

Alonzo King, April to November, 1835. 

Otis Converse, 1836-1838. 

Adiel Harvey, 1839-1845. 

Silas Bailey, 1845-1847. 

William L. Brown, 1847-1851. 

Nathaniel Hervey, 1851-1853. 

William H. Walker, 1855-1858. 

A. N. Arnold, 1858-1864. 



LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 233 

J. A. Goodhue, 1864-1867. 

C. W. Flanders, 1868-18 70. 

Stephen H. Stackpole, 1871-1873. 

Benjamin A. Greene, 1875-1882. 

J. H. Parshley, 1883-1884. 

N. Newton Glazier, 1 884-1886. 

George F. Babbitt, 1886. 

In 1823 there was a Restorationist Society in Shrews- 
bury, to which some Westborough people attached them- 
selves. Their names were John Leland, Martin Bullard, 
Jesse Rice, Barnabas Newton, Coolidge Forbush, Joseph 
Wood, Leonard Maynard, Samuel Forbush, John Andrews, 
Nathaniel Andrews, and Nathan A. Fisher. David Fay 
was in the same year entered as a member of the second 
Universalist Society of Boston, of which Hosea Ballou 
was pastor. This was just at the time when Mr. Ballou 
was at the beginning of his strong influence, and the 
older Universalism was receiving its new impulse and its 
new interpretation. It never became strong enough in 
Westborough to organize a church, but at the outset it 
met with considerable individual response. 

It was not long after the organization of the First 
Society, to take the place of the town as the ecclesiasti- 
cal corporation, that differences of opinion became mani- 
fest which were destined, as in so man^ other cases at 
that period, to result in the division of the oldest eccle- 
siastical body. There had come to be a sharp division 
between Trinitarian and Unitarian theories, and the ques- 
tion of the exchange of pulpits between ministers who 
held the different beliefs was one of the first causes of 
disturbance. Mr. Rockwood, who held the pulpit at this 
time, was a man respected by the whole town ; but the 
differences of opinion were becoming so sharp that other 



234 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

considerations were forgotten by both parties in the de- 
sire to maintain their theological positions. Mr. Rock- 
wood was not adapted for a healer of the division, having 
himself very strong convictions, which he felt it to be 
his solemn duty to maintain at all hazards. In March, 
1829, there was an article in the warrant for the meet- 
ing of the society "to see if the society will request the 
Rev. Elisha Rockwood to make exchanges on the Sab- 
bath with all the Congregational ministers in regular 
standing who live in towns situated at a convenient dis- 
tance, without regard to their particular tenets in the- 
ology." The article was passed over; but it reflects the 
state of feeling. There were a good many in the society 
of the new way of thinking, but they were as yet in the 
minority. Their next effort was to secure Unitarian 
preaching a part of the time ; but this also was voted 
down. Meantime, the necessity for a new meeting-house 
was growing imperative, and lent a new aspect to the 
struggle. Some members of the society wished to build 
a house in which both forms of faith might have equal 
rights ; others were determined to restrict its use to the 
older form. The difference of opinion simply prevented 
the building of any house on the existing basis of rep- 
resentation. The outcome of it was that in 1833 a part 
of the members of the society seceded, and formed a 
new society, which they called " The Congregational Cal- 
vinistic Society." The church then held a meeting, at 
which forty members were present, and voted, thirty- 
two to four, to separate from the old society and unite 
with the new. This looked as if the matter had reached 
a settlement ; but there were a number of those who still 
held the views of the body of the church who were not 
yet ready to take the radical step of divorce ; and so, 




THE UNITARIAN CHURCH. 



LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 235 

to solve the difficulty, it was determined to try the Con- 
gregational method of a council. Accordingly, on the 
7th of January, 1834, an ecclesiastical council was con- 
vened at Dexter Brigham's hotel, and gave a patient 
hearing to the case, continuing its session till late at 
night, and then adjourning until the next morning. Its 
final decision was to advise that "the members of this 
church unite with those in the community whom they 
may associate with them in forming a new religious soci- 
ety." As this was a practical ratification of the action 
already taken, the church lost no time in accepting it. 
We hear no more of the " Calvinistic Society;" but 
there is a reorganization throughout, and the " Evangeli- 
cal Society " appears, with which the old church in a 
body, with only one or two exceptions, connects itself. 
On the 29th of January fifty-six members withdrew from 
the First Society to join the new body, and on the 10th 
of February nine more. A formal effort was made to 
cement the difficulty, even at this stage of affairs, by the 
offer on the part of the Evangelical Society to pay its 
part toward the expenses, provided Mr. Rockwood could 
be retained as pastor; but this must have been foreseen 
to be impossible. The breach was complete, and thence- 
forth there are two societies. 

Mr. Rockwood's contract was with the First Society, 
which was the lineal successor of the town in the transac- 
tion of ecclesiastical business. Of course the events which 
had occurred left the society a unit in regard to the 
question of retaining his services. Inasmuch as he made 
no movement in regard to the matter, the society, at its 
meeting on the 10th of February, voted " that as the 
division of the society has left it composed mostly of 
those who entertain views and opinions different from 



236 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

those entertained by Rev. Elisha Rockwood, and as it 
has become the wish of the society that the relation be 
dissolved," a committee be appointed to obtain such infor- 
mation as should enable them to act definitely and under- 
standing^ on the subject. The final outcome of this 
action, after some parley and some bitter words on both 
sides, was the peremptory dismission of Mr. Rockwood as 
minister of the First Society. 

As the result of this division, the meeting-house and 
other ecclesiastical property of the First Society was re- 
tained in its possession, while the records of the church 
and the plate of the communion service was, after some 
discussion, held by the church. The old society at once 
took measures to supply preaching more in accord with 
its views, and in August called the Rev. Hosea Hildreth to 
the pastorate. He was installed in October, but resigned 
in the following April (1835); an ^ services in the old 
meeting-house ceased. The proximity of the railroad 
made the situation undesirable for church purposes, and 
the house was sold, as has been already stated, in 1837. 
Ten years went by without religious services on the part 
of the old society, but in 1848 a lot was purchased, and 
the church erected on its present site. It was for a long 
time a hard struggle for existence ; pastorates were brief, 
and changes frequent : but with outside aid the debt was 
lifted in i860, and the society entered on better days. 
Some twelve years ago a parsonage was built by the side 
of the church. The pastorates have been as follows : 

Hosea Hildreth, 1834-1835. 
William O. Moseley, 1850. 
Nathaniel Gage, 1851-1857. 
H. A. Cook, 1858. 
Benjamin Huntoon, 1859. 



LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 237 

Gilbert Cummings, 1 860-1 863. 

George N. Richardson, 1 864-1868. 

W. G. Todd, 1868-1870. 

J. L. Hatch, 1871. 

C. A. Allen, 1872-1875. 

C. W. Emerson, 1875-1876. 

Granville Pierce, 1877. 

J. P. Forbes, 1878-1882. 

E. C. Abbott, 1 884-1886. 

E. A. Coil, 1 888-. 

Meantime the old church with its new society proceeded 
to the erection of a new meeting-house, the one which 
still stands, though enlarged and beautified, on the original 
spot. The energy and promptness with which this house 
was built contrasts in the most striking way with the slow, 
creeping pace at which the previous church buildings had 
struggled into existence, and indicates the dawn of a new 
era. It was on the 10th of February, 1834, that the vote 
was passed "to build a meeting-house similar to the one in 
Grafton; " and on the 17th of December of the same year 
it was dedicated. The church, meantime, had worshipped 
part of the time in the Baptist church on the plain, and 
part of the time in Union Hall, south of the old West- 
borough hotel. The organ had been left behind, and 
some other means must be provided for sustaining the 
musical part of the service ; so it was voted on the 29th 
of December to purchase a double-bass viol, and a com- 
mittee was appointed to procure a leader of the choir. 
Mr. Rockwood was considered as virtual pastor, inasmuch 
as it was the society, and not the church, which was new ; 
but the struggle through which all had passed, the bitter- 
ness of which was to last for years, rendered it impossible 
that the relationship, long and fruitful though it had been, 
should continue. A year after the dedication of the new 



238 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

house the pastor tendered his resignation, which, after 
some demur, was accepted, and his dismission by council 
followed on the nth of March. 

There was some delay in supplying his place, and the 
first incumbent who succeeded him — Barnabas Phinney — 
proved a very bad investment; so that it was not till 1837 
that the church settled down to a steady progress under 
the ministration of Charles B. Kittredge. This pastorate 
lasted for more than nine years, during which time the 
Sunday-school became distinctly connected with the church, 
a creed was formulated to meet the necessities of that con- 
troversial period, and a complete list of the membership, 
from its organization in 1724, was made, at the cost of great 
labor and care. A very brief pastorate — that of Henry 
N. Beers — followed ; but in 1849 Daniel R. Cady accepted 
the post, and began a pastorate which lasted till ill-health 
compelled him to resign it in 1856, and which left behind 
it influences and associations of tender and lasting value. 
He was immediately succeeded by Luther H. Sheldon, 
whose genial and sensible ministry of eleven years is still 
fresh in many memories. In 1869 the church building 
was entirely remodelled, and enlarged to its present dimen- 
sions. It was re-dedicated in February, 1870, during an 
interval between pastorates. In October, 1871, Mr. Albert 
W. Smith, who had removed here some time before from 
Boston, and had been a warm friend of the church and an 
unremitting supervisor of the repairs on the meeting-house, 
left by will the sum of $2,000 toward the building of a 
parsonage; and the present house was erected the fol- 
lowing year. 

The pastorates since that of Mr. Sheldon have been — 

Artemas Dean, 1867-1869. 
Heman P. De Forest, 1871-1880. 



LATER ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 239 

F. A. Thayer, 1880-188 2. 
William Mitchell, 1 883-1884. 
W. Walcott Fay, 1888. 

Reference has been made to the existence of a trace of 
Methodism here as early as the latter part of the eighteenth 
century. But there was not enough of it to crystallize 
into a church until half a century later. In the spring of 
1844 the First Methodist Episcopal Church was organ- 
ized, — not yet, however, as an integral church, but as a 
branch of the church in Holliston. In the two following 
years it was connected in a similar way with the church 
in Hopkinton, whose pastor sometimes came over to 
preach in the Centre school-house, — the building now 
standing at the north end of the old burying-ground. In 
1847 it was again connected with the Holliston church, 
and so remained until 1858, when it became an indepen- 
dent station, and had a pastor of its own. At that time it 
worshipped in the lower story of the High School-house. 
Six years later the present house of worship was built, and 
the church assumed its place with the rest in the commu- 
nity. The pastors have been — 

J. E. Cromack, 1858-185 9. 
W. P. Blackmer, 1860-1861. 
S. B. Sweetser, 1862-1863. 
J. B. Bigelow, 1864-1865. 
W. M. Hubbard, 1866-1867. 
W. A. Nottage, 1 868-1 869. 
B. Gill, 1870-1871. 
Burtis Judd, 1872-1874. 
J. S. Day, 1875. 
Z. A. Mudge, 1876-1878. 
J. H. Emerson, 18 79-1881. 
E. A. Howard, 1 881-1884. 
John R. Cushing, 1884-1887. 
A. W. Tirrell, 1887. 



240 EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

St. Luke's Church — Roman Catholic — was instituted 
about 1850, but for twenty years was under the charge of 
pastors of the surrounding parishes. In 1868 the old 
meeting-house of the Baptist Society was purchased, and 
removed to Milk Street, where it accommodated the parish 
for eighteen years, when, on the 4th of April, 1886, it was 
burned to the ground. A temporary chapel was built on 
Ruggles Street, where the church worshipped till the 
recent completion of its present house on Main Street. 
The presbytery adjoining was built in 1881. The church 
now has some two thousand people under its supervision. 
Previous to 1871 it was under the charge of six different 
priests, — Fathers Gibson of Worcester, Farley of Milford, 
Sherrin of Uxbridge, and Cuddy, Welch, and Barry of 
Hopkinton. The resident priests have been, R. J. Dono- 
van, 1871-1873; P. Egan, 1873-1878; C. J. Cronin, 1878- 
1884; R. S. J. Burke, 1884-1886; J. J. McCoy, 1886-. 
Father Cronin died in charge of the parish, and is buried 
in the Catholic cemetery. 

In 1859 the Second Adventists organized, and built the 
chapel on Church Street, which they have occupied with 
varying fortunes since. 

Episcopal services began to be held in Henry Hall 
in 1878, and were continued for some time at intervals. 
In 1885 regular sessions were begun in the Unitarian 
Chapel, under the charge of the Rev. John Gregson, 
of Wilkinsonville. 



That part of the history of the town which I have un- 
dertaken to set forth closes with i860. The remainder, 
from the beginning of the Civil War to the present time, is 
in charge of Mr. E. C. Bates. I have, however, at his 
request brought the sketch of ecclesiastical history down 



CONCLUSION. 241 

to the present year. Nine years of personal acquaintance 
with the town in the last decade impressed me strongly 
with its thrifty and healthy growth and its wholesome char- 
acter. Events and persons are vividly before me of which 
it would be a pleasure to speak ; but that is not within my 
present purpose. It is, however, not with the spirit of the 
antiquarian, but rather from a personal interest in the 
place and the people, that I have filched such time as I 
was able from the hours of a busy life to save the story of 
the earlier days from complete oblivion. If not a romantic 
story, it is an honorable one, and a good heritage to hold 
from the past as a stimulus to future achievement ; and my 
hope is that the telling of it, imperfect as it is, may encour- 
age the rising interest in the past history of the place, and 
stimulate others to develop that which is here begun. 



THE LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



PREFACE TO PART II. 



To the many persons who have aided me in the 
pleasant task of preparing the second part of the HIS- 
TORY OF Westborough, I am deeply grateful. I am 
under special obligations to a valuable file of the " West- 
borough Chronotype" in the Public Library, and to 
the long and careful labors of the late Hon. Samuel M, 
GRIGGS, who, as town clerk of Westborough from 1856 
to 1886, not only kept the records during that time in 
the most excellent manner, but made a valuable index 
of the records from the beginning. 

EDWARD C. BATES. 

Westborough, November, 1890. 



VIEW OF WESTBOROUGH FROM WHITNEY HILL. 



Scanner's Initials: 



THE 



Later History of Westborough. 



CHAPTER I. 

1860-1865. 



THE CIVIL WAR. — ACTION OF THE TOWN. — IN THE 
FIELD. — SOLDIERS' SEWING SOCIETY. 

THE story of the growth and development of West- 
borough now turns from matters strictly local to 
her humble, though loyal and earnest, share in suppress- 
ing a great rebellion. At the outbreak of the war the 
town had increased to a population of about three thou- 
sand. Agriculture was still the main occupation of her 
people, though the manufacture of sleighs, and of boots 
and shoes, was to some extent carried on. It was a quiet 
village. The busy hum of machinery was little heard, 
and the era of " modern improvements " in buildings, 
highways, sidewalks, and the rest had not yet begun. 
But while the people of Westborough were quietly at- 
tentive to their various local interests, — their farms and 
shops, churches and schools, — stirring events were occur- 
ring in the great world outside. The cloud of Seces- 
sion, which had been lowering over the country for nearly 
half a century, was growing blacker and more threaten- 
ing. Slavery was the cause of the disturbance. As 
lonsf as the cherished institution of the South had been 



246 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

confined to its original boundaries, the indulgent North 
had made little protest. But with the rapid growth of 
the South in industrial importance and wealth, — follow- 
ing Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin, which 
made cotton " king," and slave labor profitable, — the 
extension of slavery became the question of the day; 
and the extension of slavery into new territory aroused 
vigorous opposition. The solution of the troublesome 
question was delayed for a while by a series of hu- 
miliating compromises ; but the increasing power of the 
slaveholders made each demand more bold, and more 
dangerous to grant. A sectional war was inevitable. 
The pecuniary interests of the South were too great 
to be voluntarily surrendered, and the moral judgment 
of the North could never sanction the growth of slav- 
ery as a national institution. The weak and vacillating 
administration of President Buchanan gave the South 
an opportunity to prepare for the approaching conflict. 
Arms and ammunition were sent to Southern forts; 
ships of war were despatched to distant parts of the 
world ; the army was weakened and scattered ; in fact, 
before the grand crisis arrived, every possible means 
had been taken to make secession an easier task. 

In the Presidential election of i860 the Republican 
party presented as its candidate Abraham Lincoln, and 
pledged itself to oppose the further encroachment of 
slavery. The Democratic party, which was more friendly 
toward the system, became hopelessly divided. The 
more moderate Democrats nominated Stephen A. Doug- 
las, while John C. Breckenridge represented the extreme 
slavery sentiment of the South. In the midst of the 
excitement, a party favoring conciliation and compro- 
mise nominated John Bell. On the 6th of November, 



THE CIVIL WAR. 247 

Abraham Lincoln was elected President. His election 
was hailed with joy in the North, and with bitterness 
and rage throughout the South. The Slave States had 
boldly threatened that they would secede from the Union 
in case of Lincoln's election, and it was soon seen that 
their threats were more than idle bluster. On the 20th 
of December South Carolina passed her ordinance of 
secession; and before the inauguration of President Lin- 
coln, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, 
and Texas had followed her example. 

The first act of open hostility took place on January 
9, 1 86 1, when the steamer "Star of the West," bearing 
supplies to the Federal garrison, was fired upon off 
Charleston harbor. On April 12, Fort Sumter, which 
was garrisoned by eighty men under Captain Anderson, 
was bombarded by South Carolina troops. Two days 
later — Sunday, April 14 — the fort surrendered. The 
next morning came President Lincoln's famous call for 
seventy- five thousand men for three months' service. 

The attack on Sumter aroused the North as no event 
had done since the stirring days of 1775. The cold and 
unemotional New Englander again glowed with patriotic 
ardor. " The instant effect produced," says one histo- 
rian, "was that of solemn silence, — that silence which 
in the resolute man is the precursor of irrevocable de- 
termination ; and then there arose all through the coun- 
try, from the Canadian frontier to where the Ohio, rolling 
his waters westwardly for a thousand miles, separates the 
lands of freedom from those of slavery, not the yell of 
defiance, but the deep-toned cheer." 

The patriotism of the people of Westborough was 
stirred in unison with the general thrill. Slavery and 
secession found little sympathy. The sentiment of the 



248 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

town was shown in the election of i860, when two votes 
were cast for Breckenridge, forty-four for Bell, ninety- 
seven for Douglas, and three hundred and one for 
Lincoln. But the prompt and earnest action of the 
town in response to the President's appeal, and the spon- 
taneous and vigorous protest of the people against any 
sign of sympathy with the seceding States, are perhaps 
better evidence of the loyal spirit which animated the 
community. On Wednesday, April 17, — two days after 
the call for troops, — a warrant was issued by the se- 
lectmen, G. C. Sanborn, B. B. Nourse, and S. B. Howe, 
calling a town-meeting for April 25, " to see if the 
town will grant or appropriate any money toward rais- 
ing a military company in the town, or act anything 
in relation to the same." The excitement was intense, 
and warlike talk and preparations did not wait for the 
official sanction of the town. On the 19th of April the 
news of the attack on the Sixth Regiment in the streets 
of Baltimore added fuel to the flames. Patriotic enthu- 
siasm could no longer endure opposition or indiffer- 
ence. The postmaster, who had spoken rather too 
freely, it was thought, in expressing his sympathy for 
the South, was its most prominent victim. On the after- 
noon of the outrage in Baltimore a crowd of excited 
men appeared before the office, — at the corner of South 
and Main Streets, near where G. M. Tewksbury's jewelry 
store now is, — and presenting him with the flag of his 
country, demanded that he raise it at the office door. 
This he refused to do. Fifteen minutes were given him 
to change his mind; and when it was announced that 
the allotted time had nearly expired, a friend of the 
postmaster, with the excuse that " the easiest way is 
the best way," avoided further trouble by nailing the 



THE CIVIL WAR. 249 

flag to the door-post. There it remained for months, 
until the wind and rain had reduced it to tatters, inspir- 
ing loyalty and rebuking indifference. 

At the town-meeting held April 25, in accordance 
with the warrant mentioned above, T. A. Smith, C. P. 
Winslow, J. F. B. Marshall, Benjamin Boynton, and John 
Bowes were chosen a committee to consider the matter 
of raising a company, and to report the necessary ex- 
pense. They reported the following resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted : — 

" Resolved, — That the town appropriate five thousand dollars, 
to be expended in the purchase of uniforms, pay of men while 
drilling, and for pay in addition to the amount paid by the 
Government, when called into active service. 

"Resolved, — That a committee of five be chosen, whose duty 
it shall be to attend to the expenditure and disbursement of all 
moneys hereby appropriated ; and no bills shall be contracted 
for or paid without the approbation and approval of said 
committee." 

No petty bickering marred the unanimity with which 
the people of Westborough responded to the call of the 
President. After the unanimous adoption of the above 
resolutions, it was immediately voted that " the treas- 
urer be authorized to borrow $5,000, the selectmen 
issuing town script therefor, to fall due $1,000 per 
annum after the present issues ; " and further, that the 
selectmen, — G. C. Sanborn, B. B. Nourse, and S. B. 
Howe, — with J. F. B. Marshall and Patrick Casey, be 
the committee called for in the second resolution. 

The Military Committee, as it was called, having organ- 
ized by choosing B. B. Nourse chairman and J. F. B. 
Marshall secretary, immediately set about its task. A 
company was organized, known as the Westborough 



250 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Rifle Company, and was chartered on April 29 as Mas- 
sachusetts Volunteer Militia. It numbered seventy-nine 
men. But before the time of going into camp, the an- 
nouncement came that the Government could accept 
no more volunteers for three months' service. The com- 
pany was accordingly re-organized, with a view to enlisting 
for three years. It lost, in consequence, nearly half its 
members ; but recruits kept joining from day to day, and 
before its departure the company contained one hundred 
and one men. Of the total number, Westborough fur- 
nished fifty-six men; Southborough, eighteen; Upton, 
nine; Shrewsbury, nine; Hopkinton, eight; and North- 
borough, one. 

Several weeks were spent in drilling and equipping the 
company, during which it made marches to several of 
the surrounding towns. "Sumptuous dinners, patriotic 
speeches by town magnates, and the blessings of the 
fathers and mothers," in the words of one of their num- 
ber, " were everywhere showered upon the volunteers." 
Calvin Chamberlain, a resident of California, but a native 
of Westborough, showed his interest in their welfare by 
presenting each man with a dagger ; and on the company's 
visit to Upton, each member was presented with a drinking- 
tube by the Hon. William Knowlton. 

The work of preparing uniforms was undertaken by 
the women. On April 26, the day following the town- 
meeting at which it was voted to raise a military 
company, a meeting was held in the Town Hall to 
organize a Soldiers' Sewing Society. After prayer by 
the Rev. Mr. Cummings, of the Unitarian Church, J. F. B. 
Marshall explained the objects of the meeting. It was 
voted to organize a society, and the following officers 
were chosen : president, Mrs. E. M. Phillips ; secretary, 



THE CIVIL WAR. 25 I 

Miss M. J. Marshall; directors, Mrs. J. F. B. Marshall, 
Mrs. S. B. Lakin, Mrs. A. N. Arnold, Mrs. J. A. Fayer- 
weather, and Mrs. Salmon Comstock. There was plenty 
of work awaiting the society; and in accordance with a 
notice read in all the churches on the previous Sunday, 
two hundred ladies, with their needles and thimbles, met 
at the Town Hall Tuesday morning, April 30, at ten 
o'clock. After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Arnold, of the 
Baptist Church, and the singing of a hymn, the different 
garments, "consisting of four dozen blue-flannel shirts 
and four dozen pairs gray-flannel drawers," were dis- 
tributed. The work progressed steadily for four or five 
hours, until the allotted task was completed. This work 
was for the State. Subsequent meetings for preparing 
uniforms for the Westborough company were frequently 
held until the 20th of June. The result was the thor- 
ough equipment of the company (the town furnishing the 
material, and J. A. Trowbridge, who then had a tailor's 
shop, attending to the cutting) with uniform, fatigue-suit, 
havelock, thread-bag, towels, handkerchief, soap, and 
comb for each soldier. 

After weeks of preparation, on the 29th of June the 
Rifle Company departed to Fort Independence, Boston 
Harbor, and on the 16th of July was mustered into ser- 
vice for three years as Company K, Thirteenth Regi- 
ment, Mass. Vols. The following Westborough men were 
in the ranks : — 

William P. Blackmer, Captain. John Jones, Corporal. 

William B. Kimball, First Sergeant. William H. Sibley, " 

Abner R. Greenwood, Sergeant. Alfred L. Sanborn, " 

William W. Fay, " Melzar G. Turner, " 

William R. Warner, " Sidney Barstow. 

Augustus Allen, Corporal. Isaiah H. Beals. 



252 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



Charles R. Brigham. 
Harrison M. Brigham. 
Francis A. Brigham. 
Emory Bullard. 
John S. Burnap. 
Thomas Copeland. 
John Copeland. 
John H. Crowley. 
Wallace H. Cushman. 
Ira L. Donovan. 
George R. Douglas. 
Charles Drayton. 
George F. Emery. 
Joseph H. Fairbanks. 
Hollis H. Fairbanks. 
Henry A. Fairbanks. 
Charles M. Fay. 
John Fly. 



William H. Forbush. 
John Glidden. 
George C. Haraden. 
Frank A. Harrington. 
Lyman Haskell. 
Hiram G. Hodgkins. 
John Lackey. 
Edward Lee. 
Alden Lovell. 
Michael Lynch. 
Chandler Robbins. 
Harvey C. Ross. 
John W. Sanderson. 
James Slattery. 
Frank L. Stone. 
Melvin H. Walker. 
Stephen Warren. 
Charles H. Williams. 



In Company C. 
Spencer Chamberlain. George B. Searles. 

In Company E. 
John Burns. 

At the time of its organization the company had made 
choice of the following officers, who had been duly com- 
missioned by Governor Andrew; captain, William P. 
Blackmer, the pastor of the Methodist Church ; first 
lieutenant, Charles P. Winslow ; second lieutenant, Ethan 
Bullard ; third lieutenant, John W. Sanderson ; fourth lieu- 
tenant, Abner R. Greenwood. As only two lieutenants 
were allowed in the United States service, changes in 
the roll of officers soon became necessary. Captain 
Blackmer retained his commission, but resigned Octo- 
ber 1 6, and was succeeded by Captain Charles H. Hovey. 
The positions of first and second lieutenants were given 



THE CIVIL WAR. 253 

respectively to William B. Bacon, of Worcester, and 
Charles B. Fox, of Dorchester. Lieutenants Winslow and 
Bullard withdrew temporarily from the service; Lieu- 
tenant Sanderson enlisted in Company C of the same 
(thirteenth) regiment, was appointed orderly sergeant, 
and afterwards was promoted to first lieutenant ; and 
Lieutenant Greenwood remained as second sergeant in 
Company K. 

The company remained at Fort Independence until 
July 29, when it was ordered to the scene of war. The 
train containing the regiment passed through Westbor- 
ough ; and as it rolled slowly past the station, hundreds 
of citizens were in waiting to catch a last look of their 
friends and cheer them on their way. 

The regiment proceeded to Williamsport, Md., and re- 
mained in that vicinity during the remainder of the 
year. Death twice visited the camp. John S. Burnap 
died of exposure December 10, and George C. Haraden 
of heart-disease December 22. Their remains were for- 
warded to their friends at home, and their funeral ser- 
vices, under the charge of the selectmen, were conducted 
by clergymen of the different churches, and attended by 
a large number of citizens. Places of business were 
closed, and every mark of respect was shown to the 
memory of the first soldiers of Westborough who during 
the Civil War died in their country's service. 

In sending to the field its first military company, the 
work of the town had just begun. It was found that 
the citizens had acted without authority in the meeting 
of April 25, and another meeting was held July 27, at 
which the following resolution was adopted : — 

" In consequence of the illegality of the proceedings relative 
to raising money for military purposes at a town meeting held 



254 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the 25th day of April last ; and whereas since that meeting the 
Legislature having passed an Act authorizing towns to raise 
money to defray expenses already then incurred, and to fulfil 
existing contracts to a certain extent with members of the volun- 
teer militia of this State, — It is therefore Resolved, That this 
town do now raise, by the issue of town-scrip, the sum of thirty- 
five hundred dollars to defray the expenses already incurred, 
and in carrying out any contracts already made in raising and 
fitting out the military company in this town known as the 
Westborough Rifle Company, composed of citizens of this and 
adjoining towns." 

It was further " voted unanimously that the Military 
Committee be authorized to carry out any contracts which 
they have made with any members of the Westborough 
Rifle Company to the extent of the provisions of the 
law." And in order that the families of volunteers 
should suffer no hardship, it was voted " that the select- 
men be authorized and directed to aid the families of 
the inhabitants of Westborough who, as members of the 
volunteer militia of this State, may have been mustered 
into or enlisted in the service of the United States, — to 
each wife, parent, or child, dependent on such inhabitant 
for support, the sum of one dollar per week, provided 
the whole sum given to the family of any one person so 
enlisted shall not exceed the sum of twelve dollars per 
month; and the selectmen are authorized to render such 
further aid to the families of volunteers enlisted as afore- 
said as they shall deem necessary for their support, and 
that this additional aid shall be charged to the military 
account ; " and to carry out the provisions of this vote 
the treasurer was authorized to borrow $1,500. 

In accordance with votes of the town, the Military 
Committee expended, in providing the company with uni- 
forms, and in equipping officers, $1,647.66; in pay to 



THE CIVIL WAR. 255 

men while drilling, $1,057.55; in one month's additional 
pay to forty members, $400; and in incidental expenses 
for music, drill-master, rent, etc., $290.39: making a total 
expenditure in 1861 of $3,395.60. Of this sum West- 
borough actually expended $2,814.20, the balance being 
made good by Southborough, Upton, and Shrewsbury. 
The selectmen, during the year 1861, aided families of 
volunteers to the extent of $1,238. 

In addition to those already named, the close of the 
year found many Westborough men in the army. The 
Twenty-second Regiment Band, mustered in October, 
contained eight, as follows : — 

John S. Bond. Marshall S. Pike. 

William Dee. Solomon J. Taft. 

Frederick W. Kimball. Austin Wallace. 

Charles C. Nichols. Salem T. Weld. 

In other regiments mustered during the first months 
of the war were, — 

Charles W. Blanchard. Charles Greenwood. 

Charles B. Burgess. Henry A. Harris. 

Jackson Donovan. John W. Haraden. 

Thomas B. Dyer. Abner W. Haskell. 

Edward S. Esty. Charles L. Harrington. 

John W. Fairbanks. Daniel B. Miller. 

George J. Fayerweather. Edward Roberts. 

William Fisher. George H. Stone. 
James H. Sullivan. 

The first year of the war came to a gloomy close. 
The prophecies of those who believed in a speedy end- 
ing of the conflict were as false as the croakings of those 
who regarded success as hopeless. Little had yet been 
done toward crushing the great uprising. In the few con- 
tests that had taken place, the Union army had suffered 



256 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

severely. Bull Run had filled the North with humiliation 
and rage that was far from soothed by the monotonous 
report of " all quiet along the Potomac." The country 
clamored for an advance; and in March, 1862, General 
McClellan began his famous " Peninsular Campaign," 
which reduced the magnificent army of one hundred 
and sixty thousand men to a discouraged band of fifty 
thousand. 

Such was the condition of the Union army, July 2, 
1862, when President Lincoln, almost heartbroken by 
the long series of failures, issued a call for three hundred 
thousand volunteers for three years' service. The quota 
assigned to Westborough was thirty-two. The grand en- 
thusiasm that had swept the country on the fall of Fort 
Sumter had subsided to a much calmer feeling. Men 
thought of the consequences before enlisting. It was found 
desirable, therefore, for the town to encourage enlistments 
by offering bounties. At a meeting held July 23, 1862, 
it was voted that " the selectmen be authorized to draw 
upon the treasurer for a sum sufficient to pay each 
recruit, who shall enlist from this town, the sum of one 
hundred dollars, which shall be paid as soon as he shall 
be mustered into the United States service ; " and further, 
that the poll-taxes of volunteers be remitted. Under the 
stimulus of these inducements, thirty men enlisted for 
three years, each of them receiving the offered bounty. 
Of this number, twenty-two were enrolled in the Thirty- 
fourth Regiment, Mass. Vols., under Col. George D. Wells, 
of Boston, and were connected with Company C. Their 
names were as follows : — 

Minot C. Adams. William H. Blake. 

William M. Aldrich. Charles E. Brigham. 

Charles W. Bacon. Dexter P. Brigham. 



THE CIVIL WAR. 257 

Charles S. Carter. Francis E. Kemp. 

George S. Chickering. John Mockley. 

Byron Donovan. Michael Powers. 

George A. Ferguson. Amos Rice. 

Henry C. Ferguson. J. Frank Sweeney. 

Charles P. Fisher. Lyman S. Walker. 

George F. Hale. Cephas N. Walker. 

Charles H. Hardy. Frederick A. Wiswall. 

Hardly a month had passed before another call 
(August 4) for three hundred thousand men for nine 
months' service was issued, and an enrolment of the 
militia was directed. In accordance with this order, all 
male citizens of the town between the ages of eighteen 
and forty- five, not visibly and permanently disabled, 
were enrolled, — a total of three hundred and ninety- 
eight men. The approximate number which Westbor- 
ough was required to raise in order to fill her quota was 
forty-one, and two men were still wanting to fill the 
quota under the previous call. The selectmen, who now 
attended to military affairs, had no difficulty in procur- 
ing enlistments. The volunteers received bounties to the 
amount of $8,200, — $200 to each man. As the town 
had no legal authority to raise money for paying bounties, 
although disposed to do so most cheerfully, four prominent 
citizens, — Abijah Wood, A. J. Burnap, J. A. Fayerweather, 
and Zebina Gleason, — loaned the town $10,000, a large 
number of citizens signing a bond to indemnify them in case 
the town should not be legally able to assume the debt. 

In responding to the call of August 4, the following 
Westborough men were mustered in Company E of the 
Fifty-first Regiment : — 

Charles P. Winslow, First Lieut. Dexter W. Bennet. 
George T. Fayerweather, Sergt. Francis A. Brigham. 

Festus Faulkner, Jr., Musician. Martin Bullard. 



258 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Henry A. Bumap. John W. Johnson. 

Andrew P. Carter. Robert S. Lackey. 

Theodore L. Davis. Charles E. Long. 

Henry S. Foster. Charles Q. Lowd. 

John A. Foster. Charles O. Parker. 

Francis Harrington. James F. Robinson. 

Myron J. Horton. Samuel O. Staples. 

Edward Hudson. George W. Warren. 

William H. Johnson. Edwin D. Wood. 

In Company A, of the same regiment, John W. San- 
derson served as first lieutenant, and in Company C, 
Joseph G. Longley as corporal. In Company I of the 
Fiftieth Regiment, mustered late in September, were the 
following : — 

James Burns. Michael C. Hannon. 

Thomas Cary. Thomas Keevan. 

Patrick Casey. Thomas Martin. 

John Dee. Thomas Murphy. 

Michael Dolan. Michael McCoy. 

Bernard Fannon. Patrick McCarthy. 

In August, the names of the following Westborough 
men were added to the rolls of Company K, Thirteenth 
Regiment : — 

Lorenzo A. Chapman. George E. Hartwell. 

William H. Edmands. John M. Hill. 

Alfred L. Trowbridge. 

Owing to the fact that citizens enrolled in the militia 
did not manifest the same zeal as was shown in other places 
in securing exemption from service, the quota of West- 
borough was soon found to be sixty-seven instead of 
forty-one. But by securing the names of Westborough 
men who had been wrongly credited to other towns, the 
selectmen reduced the number to forty-nine. The pay- 



THE CIVIL WAR. 259 

ment of $700 procured from Worcester seven of her 
surplus men, who, with one otherwise procured, filled 
the quota. Later in the year, certificates of exemption 
having been procured for eighty-three citizens, the quota 
was reduced to nineteen. The town thus had a surplus 
to her credit of thirty men, which was further in- 
creased by the enlistment of the Rev. Gilbert Cummings, 
pastor of the Unitarian Church, who was commissioned 
chaplain of the Fifty-first Regiment. The seven men 
secured from Worcester were returned, ten were trans- 
ferred to the credit of Shrewsbury on payment of $1,250, 
and the remaining fourteen would likewise have been 
transferred, had not an order been issued forbidding this 
practice of "selling" men. 

In addition to those already named, the following 
Westborough men entered the United States service in 
1862: — 

Lewis H. Boutelle. Thomas R. Hazzard. 

Warren L. Brigham. James Mahoney. 

Patrick Burns. John Morin. 

Patrick Burns (2). George B. Morse. 

Allen W. Cross. Henry G. Rice. 

George L. Davis. John Rice. 

William Denny. Charles A. Rice. 

James Doherty. John W. Sanger. 

Benjamin N. Fairbanks. J. Henry Stone. 

William Fisher. George H. Stone. 

Charles O. Greenwood. Frank A. Stone. 

Francis Hanley. Samuel Woodside. 

On the field of battle during the year 1862 the men 
from Westborough had suffered severely. James H. Sul- 
livan was the first to fall. He had enlisted August 12, 
1 86 1, in Company K, Twenty-first Regiment In the 
battle of Newbern, N. C, March 14, 1862, he was shot 



2<50 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

through the neck and killed. On August 30 the second 
battle of Bull Run took place ; and there the Thirteenth 
Regiment, which had been engaged in picket duty be- 
tween the Rappahannock and Manassas, suffered con- 
siderable loss. Among the killed were two Westborough 
men, — Thomas Copeland and Hollis H.Fairbanks; and 
four, Alden Lovell, William Forbush, Isaiah H. Beals, 
and Wallace H. Cushman, were among the wounded. 
Upon receiving news of the battle, B. B. Nourse, accom- 
panied by J. F. B. Marshall, was despatched to Washing- 
ton with hospital stores furnished by the Soldiers' Sewing 
Society. The wounded men were found in the hospitals, 
and reported themselves well cared for. The delegates 
paid a visit to the camp of the Thirty-fourth Regiment 
at Alexandria, Va., and to that of the Thirteenth Regi- 
ment at Leesboro', Md. The Westborough men in the 
former regiment, they reported, were "well and in a 
cheerful condition ; " but those in the Thirteenth were 
" quite destitute." They had lost their knapsacks at Bull 
Run, their clothing was unfit for wear, and the heat and 
dust gave them a "very uncomfortable appearance." A 
few days later the regiment took part in the battle of 
Antietam, and several Westborough men — among them 
George E. Hartwell, William H. Sibley, William W. Fay, 
Henry A. Fairbanks, and Abner R. Greenwood — were 
wounded. 

The year 1862 had passed without bringing any signs 
of a speedy ending of the war, and the first months of 
1863, before the successes at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, 
brought nothing to relieve the general depression. A 
considerable party was clamoring for peace on any terms, 
and their evil counsels became louder and louder. The 
horrors of war, too, were becoming more manifest. It 



THE CIVIL WAR. 26l 

became week by week more difficult to secure recruits 
for the armies. In July, when the President issued 
another call for troops, a resort to drafting became 
necessary. The quota of Westborough was forty-four. 
Although the town claimed to have furnished twenty- 
four men more than her just proportion, there was no 
way of having the claim allowed. One hundred and sixty- 
five of her citizens had already gone to the war. The 
stirring appeals of orators at public meetings, and the 
offer of generous bounties, were ineffectual in securing 
more. Harsher measures seemed necessary; and sixty-six 
men were accordingly drafted into the service. Thirty of 
these reported themselves and were accepted, of whom 
twenty-six paid commutation, and four went into the 
army. 

In October came another call for three hundred thou- 
sand men for three years' service, and a little later a call for 
two hundred thousand more. The quota of the town was 
thirty-two. The courage and enthusiasm of the people had 
been renewed by the more hopeful outlook, and the patri- 
otic young men, coming forward to enlist without any pe- 
cuniary inducement from the town, filled the quota. Six 
enlisted in the Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique, which served 
in Louisiana until the close of the war. Their names were 
as follows : — 

Charles R. Brigham. Solomon J. Taft. 

John Laflin. John C. Wheeler. 

Francis H. Sandra. Charles H. Williams. 

Eight enlisted in the Fifty-sixth Regiment, but were 
afterwards transferred to the Fifty-seventh Regiment, where 
several of their friends were serving. The list of West- 
borough men in Company B, Fifty-seventh Regiment, 
was as follows : — 



262 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

George S. Ballou. John A. Hart. 

Albert Brigham. James H. Holland. 

Calvin L. Brigham. Antonio Joan. 

Francis W. Bullard. Charles A. Kirkup. 

David N. Chapin. Edward Lowell. 

Patrick Crowe. William Magner. 

Henry C. Flagg. Timothy G. Sullivan. 

Willis A. Forbes. Harris C. Warren. 

Myron D. Green. Harlan F. Witherby. 

In other companies of the same regiment were, — 

Herbert W. Bond. Charles Q. Lowd. 

John Copeland. Jeremiah W. Marsh. 

John Crowe. John W. Sanderson. 

John Little. Herbert O. Smith. 

During the year 1863 other enlistments accredited to 
Westborough were as follows : — 

Walter Bailey. Edwin A. Dudley. 

William Berryhill. George W. Fairbanks. 

Jefferson K. Cole. William H. H. Greenwood. 

Reuben Delano. William Mortimer. 

In July, 1863, the men who had enlisted in the Fifty- 
first Regiment, and in August those in the Fiftieth Re- 
giment, — forty-three in all, — returned to their homes 
without the loss of a single Westborough man. The Fifty- 
first had been stationed in the vicinity of Newbern, N. C., 
where it had suffered much from disease ; and the Fiftieth 
had taken part in the siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana. 
Although originally enlisting for nine months, at the end 
of that period both regiments had volunteered to remain 
longer if their services were needed. The Government 
had gladly accepted their offer, and it was nearly a year 
after their enlistment when they returned home. As for 
the other regiments, the Thirteenth, which contained at 



THE CIVIL WAR. 263 

this time about thirty Westborough men, took part in the 
battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3. John Fly died from the 
effects of injuries there received, and Harvey C. Ross and 
Melvin H. Walker were severely wounded. The Thirty- 
fourth Regiment had been engaged in garrison, guard, and 
escort duty near Washington and Alexandria from its mus- 
tering until July 7, 1862, and had earned a wide reputation 
for its proficiency in drills, its excellent discipline, and its 
neat quarters. July 14, having driven out the enemy, it 
took possession of Harper's Ferry ; and although engaged 
in no important battle during 1863, it did valuable duty 
in that vicinity. 

In April, 1864, — only twenty-nine of the sixty-six men 
drafted in July, 1863, having been accepted, — the select- 
men went to Washington, D. C, and succeeded in procuring 
recruits to make up the deficiency of twelve in the quota 
of the town. These were secured by the payment of $125 
bounty per man, and $50 for the services of other persons. 

During these early months of 1864, General Grant, who 
had begun his famous campaign against General Lee, was 
slowly advancing toward Richmond. In order to draw 
him from his course, General Lee planned an invasion 
of Maryland and Pennsylvania and an advance toward 
Washington. The invasion was eventually repelled by 
General Sheridan ; but in May, when the danger was at 
its height, it was decided to strengthen the defences of 
Washington by sending forward all veteran troops who 
were stationed in the North. The State militia were or- 
dered out to relieve the veterans. The company in West- 
borough, under command of Captain Charles P. Winslow, 
promptly met the call, — many of the members, much to 
their pecuniary loss, leaving their business at the shortest 
notice. The company, which was known as the Sixth Un- 
attached, M. V. M., was stationed at Readville, Mass., during 



264 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



the whole of its term of service, - 
1864. It contained the following 

Charles P. Winslow, Captain. 

John Jones, First Lieutenant. 

William W. Fay, Second " 

George W. Warren, First Sergt. 

George B. Searles, Sergeant. 

Gilbert Cummings, Jr., " 

George T. Fayerweather, " 

Squire S. Tidd, 

William M. Blake, Corporal. 

Israel H. Bullard, " 

William M. Child, 

Ezra Churchill, 

David B. Faulkner, 

Albert A. Arnold. 

Warren Bartlett. 

George N. Bellows. 

Hiram C. Bemis. 

Peter Boulie. 

Alden L. Boynton. 

Ellison L. Braley. 

Frank G. Braley. 

Silas H. Brigham. 

Warren L. Brigham. 

Henry A. Burnap. 

Frederick D. Chase. 

Napoleon Chevalier. 

Charles E. Clark. 

Walter demons. 

William H. Drummond. 

Patrick Dunn. 

Charles A. Fairbanks. 

Freeman Fairbanks. 

Henry A. Fairbanks. 

Festus Faulkner, Jr. 

Waldo L. Fay. 

William C. Fletcher. 

Charles A. 



— from May 4 to Aug. 2, 
Westborough men : 

Alonzo G. Forbush. 
John A. Gilmore. 
Charles A. Goss. 
Charles A. Harrington. 
Edwin F. Harrington. 
Charles B. Haskell. 
Bowers C. Hathaway. 
Charles S. Henry. 
Myron J. Horton. 
Charles S. Howe. 
John W. Howe. 
Edward Hudson. 
Elijah C. Janes. 
Samuel R. Jones. 
Charles W. Kidder. 
Charles T. Lackey. 
Joseph Lebeau. 
William C. Loker. 
Charles O. Longley. 
George A. Longley. 
Josiah W. Miller. 
William A. Miller. 
John W. Moody. 
Thomas Murphy. 
Frank A. Newton. 
Augustus F. Nichols. 
Charles O. Parker. 
Charles H. Pierce. 
Arthur W. Robbins. 
James F. Robinson, 
John T. Robinson. 
John G. Sargent. 
George W. Searles. 
Foster Shambeau. 
Alfred L. Trowbridge. 
George A. Walker. 
Ware. 



THE CIVIL WAR. 



265 



Just before the return of the Westborough men from 
Readville, the President issued a call for five hundred 
thousand men to serve one year. The quota of West- 
borough was forty-six. On the return of the militia com- 
pany, Captain Winslow, having obtained permission from 
the State officials to raise a company in Westborough, 
quickly secured sixty-two enlistments. Men from other 
towns eagerly embraced the opportunity to enlist in it, 
and Captain Winslow reported at Worcester with full 
ranks. It was known as Company E, Fourth Heavy Ar- 
tillery, Mass. Vols. The company had been raised for coast 
defence, under the assurance that it would not be called 
beyond the limits of the State. Early in August, however, 
it was ordered to the defence of Washington, and remained 
in the neighborhood of the capital until its discharge, — 
June 17, 1865. The volunteers from Westborough were as 
follows : — 



Charles P. Winslow, Captain. 
John Jones, First Lieutenant. 
William W. Fay, Second " 
George R. Douglas, Q. M. Sergt. 
George N. Bellows, Sergeant. 
Freeman Fairbanks, 
Alonzo G. Forbush, 
Patrick Heaphy, 
Charles M. Howe, 
Edward Hudson, 
Frank G. Braley, Corporal. 
Silas H. Brigham, " 
James Crowe, " 

Michael Dolan, " 

Bernard Fannon, " 
Charles A. Goss, " 

George A. McKendry, Corporal. 
Prescott Sibley, " 



Daniel T. Witherbee, Corpl. 
George B. Lakin, Musician. 
David M. Bailey, Artificer. 
George A. Walker, " 
John Q. Adams. 
George S. Aldrich. 
Warren Bartlett. 
Robert Black. 
John Blanchard. 
John W. Bowman. 
George C. Brigham. 
William Brown. 
William J. Card. 
Michael Cavey. 
James Conroy. 
Victor Coolidge. 
Michael Crowe. 
James F. Durgin. 



266 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Willard W. Fairbanks. Andrew Morrissey. 

Patrick Flinn. S. Whitney Nourse. 

Edward Keevan. Michael O'Dea. 

John Kelly. Edmund H. Priest. 

Charles W. Kidder. Martin Quinn. 

Patrick Kilkenny. Henry V. Richards. 

Charles H. Lamson. Arthur W. Robbins. 

Richard Loughlin. Thomas Russell. 

Samuel W. Mann. Patrick J. Sheehan. 

William McCoy. Thomas Slattery. 

Timothy McCue. Silas P. Squier. 

Thomas McHough. Jeremiah Staples. 

Lowell P. Mitchell. George A. Walker. 

John W. Moody. Robert Woodman. 

In Company F of the same regiment were — 

George T. Fayerweather, Captain. William C. Loker. 
Samuel W. Mann, First Lieutenant. Andrew Sullivan. 

In November, 1864, came the national election. The 
Republican party, having declared in its platform that no 
terms should be given to the rebellious States but uncon- 
ditional surrender, renominated President Lincoln. The 
Democratic party declared the war a failure, and favored 
a cessation of hostilities. Its candidate was Gen. George 
B. McClellan. The vote in Westborough showed an in- 
creased majority for President Lincoln, the Republican 
electors receiving three hundred and twenty-three votes, 
and the Democratic electors one hundred and thirty-one. 
The result of the contest was the triumphant re-election of 
President Lincoln, and the continuation of the war. 

The last call for volunteers came December 19, 1864, 
when three hundred thousand men were wanted to fill 
deficiencies in former quotas. The quota of Westborough 
under the former call for five hundred thousand men 
having been forty-six, it was thought that under the pres- 



THE CIVIL WAR. 267 

ent call the quota would be about three fifths of that 
number; and as the selectmen had received an official 
statement from the Provost-General of the State that the 
town had a surplus of thirty-five men to its credit, they 
were surprised to learn that, owing to a reduction of the 
number of years' service for three years' men, the town 
would be required to furnish twelve more recruits. This 
number, partly from enlistments and partly from other 
sources, was with some difficulty procured. 

In addition to those previously named, the Westborough 
men who enlisted in 1864 were as follows: — 

William F. Blake. Waldo L. Fay. 

Timothy Driscoll. George A. Lackey. 

Irving E. Walker. 

The following were procured from out of town to fill 
quotas : — 

George L. Call. Frederick Harrenslayer. 

John Calverly. John K. Harrison. 

James D. Carter. Thomas R. Hazzard. 

Edward Clements. James S. Kirkup. 

George L. Davis. Robert H. Lowheed. 

Godfried Delevenne. John McCarthy. 

James Fanin. Richard McNulty. 

George W. Fletcher. John Murphy. 

Roland Graham. John Roberts. 
William Stevens. 

The year 1864 was especially severe for the soldiers 
from Westborough. In the terrible battles of the Wil- 
derness, early in May, and in those that followed around 
Petersburg, the Fifty-seventh Regiment, which was in the 
Ninth Corps under General Burnside, suffered great loss. 
In the list of killed, wounded, and missing, were the 
names of two hundred and fifty-one men. Of the West- 



268 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

borough boys, Sergeant Herbert W. Bond, Jeremiah W. 
Marsh, and William H. H. Greenwood were killed ; John 
A. Hart was mortally wounded ; Francis W. Bullard, 
who had enlisted the preceding November, when scarcely 
sixteen years old, lost a leg; and Albert Brigham, Tim- 
othy G. Sullivan, Calvin L. Brigham, Charles A. Kirkup, 
William Magner, Daniel McCarthy, Myron D. Green, 
Antonio Joan, Patrick and John Crow, and Captain John 
W. Sanderson were wounded. The Fifty-seventh Regi- 
ment, although in active service less than a year, had 
the third highest percentage of killed of any regiment 
in the war. 

The veterans of the Thirteenth Regiment were also in 
the thick of battle in the Wilderness and near Petersburg, 
and two Westborough men, Lyman G. Haskell and Michael 
Lynch, were wounded. The regiment had seen hard ser- 
vice since its departure from home in the summer of 
1 86 1, but its hardships were nearly over. Early in July, 
1864, it was ordered home, and on the morning of July 
21, as the cars slowly passed the station at Westborough, 
the veterans joyfully threw their knapsacks to the plat- 
form. There was a short delay in Boston, and on the 
22d of July the three years' service was over. The men 
had done " honor to themselves and the town they so well 
represented," say the selectmen in their report, "... and 
were cordially and heartily welcomed by their friends 
and fellow-citizens." 

Other regiments had also suffered, and men from West- 
borough had tasted the horrors of Andersonville and 
Florence. The records show that eight, — Herbert O. 
Smith, William H. Blake, George S. Chickering, Charles 
S. Carter, Minot C. Adams, Frank E. Kemp, John Cope- 
land, and Irving E. Walker, — died of " starvation and 



THE CIVIL WAR. 



269 



neglect " in Southern prisons. In the hospital at Wash- 
ington, Timothy Driscoll died of wounds on July 12, and 
Abner W. Haskell, August 29, at Beverly, N. J. 

But the war was nearly over; and in 1865. the calls 
for troops were no longer heard. There were, however, 
a few enlistments accredited to Westborough in the early 
weeks of the year, as follows : — 

Aimer R. Fairbanks. 
Henry A. Freeman. 
James Hayward. 
Erastus M. Lincoln. 



William E. Rogers. 
Frank S. Stone. 
Edgar V. Stone. 
Joseph W. Wright. 



The spring brought the surrender of General Lee and 
General Johnston, and the end of the war. 

In responding to the calls of the President, Westbor- 
ough had willingly and faithfully done her share. The 
following summary shows her contribution of soldiers : 



Number sent under call of May 3, 1861, 

July 2, 1862, 
Aug. 4, 1862, 
Oct. 17, 1863, 
Feb. 24, 1864, 



March 14, 1864, i 
to Readville, April 4, 1864, 
under call of July 18, 1864, 



82 for three years. 

36 " " " 

43 " nine months, 

45 " three years. 



'5 

73 
68 



<• 5 
373 



" ninety days. 
" one year. 
" three years. 
" one year. 



Dec. 19, 186, 

Whole number sent in response to calls 

There were also eleven men from Westborough in the 
navy, as follows : — 

Ira Barker. Albert E. Harlow. 

Samuel N. Brigham. Samuel B. Kinders. 

David N. Chapin. Albert L. Lowd. 

Patrick Crowe. Daniel McCarthy. 

William H. H. Greenwood. William A. Smith. 
Caleb Tarr. 



2^0 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

The total number of men supplied by Westborough 
(four serving in both army and navy) was three hundred 
and thirty-seven ; but many enlisted twice, and some three 
or four times, so that the total number of enlistments 
accredited to the town was three hundred and eighty- 
four. 1 According to the official figures, Westborough 
furnished forty-five men over and above all demands. 
Seventeen of her soldiers were commissioned officers. 
Twenty-five lost their lives in defending their country, and 
sixty-two were more or less severely wounded. Of the 
dead, fourteen died from wounds, eight of " starvation 
and neglect" in Southern prisons, and three others from 
disease. The bodies of only five, — William H. Blake, 
John S. Burnap, George C. Haraden, William C. Loker, 
and Daniel B. Miller, — were brought home. 

The names of the Westborough soldiers who died in 
their country's service are as follows : — 

Killed. 
Herbert W. Bond. Francis E. Hanley. 

Thomas Copeland. Henry A. Harris. 

Timothy Driscoll. John A. Hart. 

Hollis H. Fairbanks. Abner W. Haskell. 

John Fly. Jeremiah W. Marsh. 

William H. H. Greenwood. Daniel B. Miller. 
James H. Sullivan. 

Died in Prison. 
Minot C. Adams. John Copeland. 

William H. Blake. Francis E. Kemp. 

Charles S. Carter. Herbert O. Smith. 

George S. Chickering. Irving E. Walker. 

1 General Schouler, in his "Massachusetts in the Rebellion" (vol. ii. 
p. 693), says that " Westborough furnished three hundred and forty men for 
the war, — which was a surplus of forty-five over and above all demands." 
The number of men, however, was not secured from official sources, and 
apparently refers to the number of individuals rather than to the number 
of enlistments. 



THE CIVIL WAR. 27 J 

Died from Disease. 
John S. Burnap. George C. Haraden. 

William Denny. William C. Loker. 

But the sacrifices were not all made by the men who 
entered the army. Some were kept at home by duty, 
others by age or infirmity; and there were few citizens, 
it is safe to say, who did not make costly offerings for their 
country's safety. The amount of money expended by 
the town for war purposes, exclusive of State aid, was 
$23,920; and nearly $18,000, which was afterwards repaid 
by the State, was spent in assisting soldiers and their 
families. The duties of the " town fathers," especially, 
were greatly increased by the necessity of procuring en- 
listments and caring for the families of volunteers. During 
1861 and 1862 the selectmen were, Greenleaf C. Sanborn, 
Benjamin B. Nourse, and Silas B. Howe; 1863, Edwin 
Bullard, Baxter Forbes, and George H. Raymond; 1864, 
Edwin Bullard, George H. Raymond, and George W. 
Parker; 1865, Edwin Bullard, George H. Raymond, and 
Greenleaf C. Sanborn. 

The women, and even the children, who had their society 
for picking lint and winding bandages, gave freely of their 
time and labor. In the earlier pages of this chapter I spoke 
of the work of the Soldiers' Sewing Society in preparing 
uniforms for the first recruits. In the fall of 1861, in re- 
sponse to an appeal from the Sanitary Commission, their 
work began again. Frequent meetings for providing sup- 
plies and raising funds were held until the close of the war. 
During the year ending April 1, 1862, the society collected 
$76.97; 1863, $391.90; 1864, $305.67; 1865, $562.55, — 
a total amount of $1,337.09. In addition, during the 
year ending April 1, 1862, the society sent seven pack- 
ages, containing about five hundred articles of clothing, 



272 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

to the Sanitary Commission ; fifty-six pairs of mittens to 
Company K, Thirteenth Regiment; and twelve pairs of 
socks to prisoners at Richmond. The following year 
it sent nine boxes of clothing and five boxes of other 
articles suitable for hospital use to the Sanitary Com- 
mission ; one barrel of clothing and one of stores to the 
Massachusetts Relief Association at Washington; and 
two boxes to Company K, Thirteenth Regiment. The 
contributions during 1863 were three barrels of cloth- 
ing to the Sanitary Commission, more than fifty pairs 
of socks to soldiers in various regiments, and one hun- 
dred towels to the Second North Carolina Regiment. 
In the last year of the society's existence it forwarded 
eight boxes of clothing, containing eight hundred articles, 
to the Christian Commission, one hundred handkerchiefs 
to the Thirty-seventh United States Colored Troops, and 
nineteen and one half barrels of vegetables to the Sani- 
tary Commission. The officers of the society for the 
year 1861-62 are given in another place. Mrs. E. M. 
Phillips declined a re-election to the presidency in 1862, 
and Mrs. S. Deane Fisher occupied the position until the 
organization came to an end at the close of war. Miss 
M. J. Marshall, the secretary, resigned on removing from 
town, Nov. 2, 1863; Mrs. A. N. Arnold was her succes- 
sor; and Miss Mary E. Greene served as secretary and 
treasurer during the last year. 



The summer of 1865, throughout the North, was a joy- 
ful time. The great war was over, and the men, young 
and old, who had left the farm, the factory, or the 
shop to endure the privations and dangers of army life, 
once more responded to the call of duty, and became 



THE CIVIL WAR. 273 

peaceful and industrious toilers among their relatives and 
friends. The men from Westborough had performed their 
duty wherever they had been placed. If none had risen 
to high rank, at least none had brought discredit on the 
town which sent them to the war. The license and 
hardships of army life, it is true, had unfitted some for 
the pursuits of peace; but, with few exceptions, the men 
who honored Westborough in the war have done her 
equal honor by their orderly, industrious, and useful 
lives since its close. 



CHAPTER II. 

1861-1865. 

RECORDS OF SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

r I ""HE following record of each soldier furnished by 
■*■ Westborough during the Civil War has been com- 
piled mainly from records kept by the town and from the 
published records of the State. Every effort has been 
made to have the chapter as complete and accurate as 
possible ; but in some cases the authorities are conflicting, 
and in others information is lacking. Where no rank is 
given, the soldier served as private. 

Minot C. Adams, unmarried ; son of Alvin T. and Bethiah L. ; 
enlisted, July 15, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Upton, Mass., Sept. 24, 
1842 ; occupation, farmer. He was taken prisoner near Martins- 
burg, Va., in May, 1864; was carried to Andersonville, Ga., and 
thence to Florence, S. C, where he died, Nov. 1, 1864, of star- 
vation and neglect. 

John Q. Adams, married ; son of James and Hopeful ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Southbridge, Mass., Jan. 2, 1825; 
occupation, mechanic. He had his leg accidentally broken ; was 
discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

William M. Aldrich, unmarried ; son of Hannibal S. and Mary 
B. ; enlisted, July 17, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31 
1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
May 2, 1844 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Rich- 
mond, Va., June 16, 1865, at the close of war. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 275 

George S. Aldrich, unmarried ; son of Hannibal S. and Mary 
B. ; enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year ; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, 
in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Jan. 20, 
1846; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Augustus Allen, unmarried; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three 
years ; mustered, July 16, 186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; 
rank, corporal. Born, Franklin, Mass., Oct. 13, 1835 5 occupation, 
farmer. He was discharged at Washington, D. C, Sept. 5, 1862, 
by reason of disability. 

Albert A. Arnold, unmarried ; son of Albert N. and Sarah A. ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born in Greece, 1846 ; oc- 
cupation, student. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., and was 
discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Charles W. Bacon, unmarried ; enlisted July 26, 1862, for 
three years ; mustered, July 26, 1862, in 34th Regt, Co. C, Mass. 
Vols. ; wagoner. Born, 1841 ; occupation, hostler. He served 
as bugler after March, 1 864 ; was discharged at Richmond, Va., 
June 16, 1865, at expiration of service. 

David M. Bailev, married ; enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year ; 
mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born 
1 S3 2 ; occupation, carpenter. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Walter Bailey, unmarried ; son of Walter and Joanna ; enlisted, 
July 12, 1863, for three years; mustered, Sept. 2, 1863, in 16th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Haverhill, N. H., July 2, 1834 j 
occupation, farmer. He served in Army of the Potomac; was 
engaged in nine battles; was transferred, July 11, 1864, to nth 
Regt. ; was detailed as fifer in December, 1864 ; and was dis- 
charged at Readville, Mass., July 14, 1865, at expiration of service. 

George S. Ballou, married ; enlisted, Dec. 9, 1863, for three 
years; mustered, Jan. n, 1864, in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. 
Born, 1839 ; occupation, bootmaker. He was absent, sick in 
hospital, when his regiment was mustered out, but was discharged 
Aug. 8, 1S65, by order of War Department. 



276 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Sidney Barstow, unmarried ; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three 
years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. 
Born, Hanover, Mass., 1842 ; occupation, clerk. He was dis- 
charged at Washington, D. C, March 27, 1863, by reason of 
disability. 

Warren Bartlett, married ; son of William H. and Hannah ; 
enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Bolton, Mass., Jan. 20, 1839 ; 
occupation, mechanic. He had previously served ninety days 
(May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in the 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Isaiah H. Beals, married ; son of Micah and Jerusha ; enlisted, 
April 19, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Liverpool, England, March 7, 
1830; occupation, shoemaker. He was engaged in four battles; 
was wounded in the head at the battle of the Rappahannock, 
Aug. 22, 1862 ; was discharged at Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 5, 
1862, by reason of disability caused by wound. Dec. 5, 1863, he 
was mustered as corporal in 59th Regt., Co. H ; was engaged in 
two battles; was transferred to the 57th Regt., June 1, 1865, and 
was discharged at Delaney House, D.C., July 30, 1865, at the 
close of war. 

George N. Bellows, unmarried ; son of Newell and Emily ; en- 
listed, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. 
E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols, ; rank, 2d sergeant. Born, Westborough, 
June 16, 1835 ; occupation, butcher. He had previously served 
ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) as private in 6th Unattached 
Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. He was dis- 
charged, Feb. 21, 1865, by reason of disability. 

Hiram C. Bemis, unmarried ; son of Willard and Eleanor ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Hopkinton, Mass., 
Nov. 7, 1844 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of term. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 2TJ 

Dexter W. Bennett, unmarried ; enlisted, Aug. 27, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. 
V. M. Born, 1841 ; occupation, teamster. He was discharged at 
Newbern, N. C, March 3, 1863, on account of disability. 

William Berryhill, of Pennsylvania, procured by the select- 
men to fill quota ; enlisted for three years. It is not known what 
organization he joined. 

Robert Black, married ; son of Joseph and Isabella ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, 1820 ; occupation, farmer. 
He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

William P. Blackmer, married; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for 
three years; mustered, July 16, 1 861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. 
Vols. ; rank, captain. Born, Norwich, Ct, 1830 ; occupation, 
clergyman. He resigned Oct. 17, 1861, and his resignation was 
accepted Nov. 7, 1861. 

William M. Blake, married ; son of Joseph and Eliza ; enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia ; rank, corporal. Born, Roxbury, 
Mass., Oct. 2, 1820 ; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

William F. Blake, unmarried ; son of William M. and Emily 
H. ; enlisted, Aug. 13, 1864, for one year; mustered, Sept. 15, 
1864, in 2d Regt., Co. E, R. I. Vols. Born, Boston, Mass., April 
29, 1848 ; occupation, clerk. He served in Army of the Potomac ; 
was engaged in five battles ; and was discharged at Hall Hills, Va., 
July 1, 1865, at the close of war. 

William H. Blake, unmarried ; enlisted, July 24, 1862, for three 
years ; mustered, July 25, 1862, in 34th Regt, Co. C, Mass. Vols. 
Born, 1844; occupation, wheelwright. He died while prisoner 
of war at Harrisonburgh, Va., June 5, 1864, of wounds received 
May 15, 1864. 

Charles W. Blanchard, unmarried; enlisted, Oct. 25, 1861, 
for three years; mustered, Oct. 25, 1861, in Co. I, 25th Regt., 
Mass. Vols. Born, 1842 ; occupation, pedler. He was wounded 



278 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

in the hand at the battle of Newbern, N. C, and was discharged at 
Boston, Oct. 20, 1864, at expiration of service. 

John Blanchard, enlisted for one year ; mustered, Aug. 1 2, 

1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, 1832. He was dis- 
charged in Virginia, June 17, 1S65, at expiration of service. 

John S. Bond, married ; son of Leonard E. and Harriet ; en- 
listed, Sept. 11, 1S61, for three years ; mustered, Sept. 23, 1861, in 
band of 22d Regt. Born, Portland, Me., Aug. 1, 1828; occupa- 
tion, barber. He served in Army of the Potomac ; and was dis- 
charged at Washington, D. C, June 1 1, 1862, by reason of disability. 

Herbert W. Bond, unmarried ; son of Leonard E. and Harriet ; 
enlisted, Dec. 14, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1S64, in 
57th Regt., Co. H, Mass. Vols. ; rank, sergeant. He was wounded 
in the breast at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864, was re- 
ported missing, and probably died on the field. 

Peter Boulie, unmarried ; son of Frank and Florence ; enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia. Born, St. John, Can., July 16, 
1844; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Lewis H. Boutelle, married; enlisted, Sept. 15, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 26, 1862, in 45th Regt., Co. A, M. 
V. M. Born, 1S26 ; occupation, lawyer. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, July 7, 1S63, at expiration 
of service. 

John W. Bowman, married ; son of Emory and Susan ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born Westborough, Dec\ 27, 1838 ; oc- 
cupation, shoemaker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 

1865, by reason of the close of war. 

Alden L. Boynton. unmarried ; son of Reuben and A. H. ; en- 
listed, April 30, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, Jan. 2, 
1844 ; occupation, clerk. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 279 

Ellison L. Braley, married ; son of Gibbs and Levina ; enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Holliston, Mass., June 29, 
1834 ; occupation, click. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Frank G. Braley, unmarried ; son of Gibbs and Levina ; en- 
listed, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Holliston, 
Mass., March 19, 1842 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was dis- 
charged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. He had 
previously served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Charles E. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Elmer and Betsey C. ; 
enlisted, July 14, 1862, for three years ; mustered, July 31, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, March 14, 
1842; occupation, machinist. He was promoted corporal; was 
discharged, in the field, Jan. 14, 1865, that he might accept pro- 
motion to 1st lieutenant in 25th U. S. Colored Troops; and was 
afterwards made captain. 

Calvin L. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Elmer and Betsey C. ; 
enlisted, Nov. 23, 1863, for three years ; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 
57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, July 30, 
1844; occupation, farmer. He was wounded before Petersburg, 
June 24, 1864, in left foot, and was discharged at Worcester, 
Mass., June 26, 1865, at the close of war. 

Dexter P. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Dexter (2d) and 
Martha W. ; enlisted, July 11, 1862, for three years; mustered, 
July 31, 1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Westbor- 
ough, Oct. 14, 1843 ; occupation, farmer. He was engaged in 
sixteen battles ; was wounded in left foot at battle of Stickney's 
Farm, Va., Oct. 13, 1864 ; was promoted to corporal ; and was 
discharged at Richmond, Va., June 15, 1865, at the close of war. 

Albert Brigham, unmarried ; son of Dexter (2d) and Martha 
W. ; enlisted, Nov. 25, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 
1864, in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, July 
11, 1845; occupation, farmer. He was wounded in left arm at 
battle of Spottsylvania, Va., May 1, 1864, and was discharged at 



280 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Washington, D. C, June 10, 1865, on account of disability caused 
by wound. 

Charles R. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Harrison F„ and 
Susan T. ; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 
16, 186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Boston, Mass., 
1842 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged in the field, 
May 23, 1862, by reason of disability ; afterwards served twenty- 
two months in Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique, stationed in 
Louisiana. 

George C. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Harrison F. and Susan 
T. ; enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year ; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, 
in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Jan. 3, 
1849 ; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Harrison M. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Jonas B. and Lu- 
cinda ; enlisted, June 27, 186 1, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 

1 86 1, in 13th Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Grafton, Mass., 
Feb. 4, 1838 ; occupation, farmer. He was transferred to Veteran 
Reserve Corps, Feb. 15, 1864; and was discharged at Washing- 
ton, D. C, July 16, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Silas H. Brigham, unmarried ; son of Jonas B. and Lucinda ; 
enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Grafton, Mass., Jan. 5, 1844 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was promoted to corporal, and was dis- 
charged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. He had 
previously served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Francis A. Brigham, son of Lincoln and Susannah M. ; enlisted, 
June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Nov. 6, 1838; 
occupation, carpenter. He was discharged in Virginia, April 2, 

1862, by reason of disability. He was afterward mustered, Sept. 
25, 1862, in 51st Regt, Co. E, M. V. M. He served in North 
Carolina and Maryland ; and was discharged at Worcester, Mass., 
July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Warren L. Brigham (enlistment accredited to Chicopee, Mass.), 
unmarried ; son of John YV. and Martha E. ; enlisted, Sept. 9, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 28 1 

1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 46th Regt., 
Co. D, M. V. M. Born, Oakham, Mass., Jan. 25, 1846 ; occu- 
pation, clerk. He was discharged at Newbern, N. C, May 28, 

1863, by reason of disability. He aftenvard served ninety days 
(May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. 

William Brown, enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in 
Ireland, 1844; occupation, currier. He was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Emory Bullard, married ; son of Martin and Nabby ; enlisted, 
June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 1824; occupation, 
shoemaker. He was discharged in the field, May 10, 1862, on 
account of disability. 

Israel H. Bullard, married ; son of Samuel A. and Mindwell ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia; rank, corporal. Born, 
Saxonville, Mass., March 31, 1825 ; occupation, carpenter. He 
was stationed at Readville, Mass, and discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at 
expiration of term. 

Martin Bullard, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. 28, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. 
V. M. Born, 1844 ; occupation, carpenter. He was discharged at 
Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Francis W. Bullard, unmarried ; son of Abner W. and 
Annette ; enlisted, Nov. 19, 1863, for three years ; mustered, Jan. 
4, 1864, in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
Aug. 23, 1S47 ; occupation, farmer. He was wounded and taken 
prisoner at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; had left leg 
amputated by Southern surgeons, May 8, 1864 ; was kept in Lynch- 
burg from June 2 to Sept. 24, and in Richmond from Sept. 24 to 
Oct. 7, 1864 ; was paroled Oct. 7, 1864 ; had leg re-amputated at 
Dale U. S. General Hospital, Worcester, Mass., July 7, 1865 ; and 
was discharged at Boston, Nov. 23, 1865, by reason of disability. 

Charles B. Burgess (enlistment accredited to Abington, Mass.), 
enlisted for three years; mustered, Sept. 21, 1861, in 24th Regt., 



282 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, 1839; occupation, hostler. He was 
discharged, Dec. 18, 1863, to re-enlist. 

John S. Burnap, unmarried ; son of Albert J. and Sarah E. ; 
enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Aug. 18, 
1 840 ; occupation, painter. He died at Williamsport, Md., of 
exposure, Dec. 10, 1861. 

Henry A. Burnap, unmarried ; son of Albert J. and Sarah E. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 
1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Westborough, 
Nov. 3, 1843; occupation, clerk. He was discharged at Worces- 
ter, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. He afterward 
served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached 
Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

John Burns (procured from Abington, Mass.), unmarried; en- 
listed, June 29, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 186 1, in 
13th Regt., Co. E, Mass. Vols. Born, Ireland, 1840 ; occupation, 
hostler. Deserted at Sharpsburg, Md., Aug. 23, 1861. 

James Burns, unmarried ; son of James and Catherine ; en- 
listed, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, 
in 50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland, April 14, 1839; 
occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., 
Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Patrick Burns, married ; enlisted for three years ; mustered, 
July 3, 1862, in 25th Regt., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, 1835; 
occupation, shoemaker. The State records do not account for him 
after his enlistment. 

Patrick Burns (accredited to Manchester, N. H.), married; 
son of Michael and Mary ; enlisted, Aug. 15, 1862, for three years ; 
mustered, Sept. 1, 1862, in 10th Regt., Co. F, N. H. Vols. ; rank, 
corporal. Born in Ireland, March 15, 1833: occupation, shoe- 
maker. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was wounded across 
the back at the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862 ; and 
was discharged at Washington, D. C, on account of disability 
caused by wound. He afterward enlisted (accredited to Wind- 
ham, N. H.) in the nth N. H. Infantry; was engaged in eight 
battles ; was wounded at Drury's Bluff, Va , in left hip ; and was 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 283 

discharged at Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 1, 1865, on account of dis- 
ability caused by wound. 

George L. Call (procured by the selectmen from Charlestown, 
Mass., to fill quota), enlisted for three years. It is not known 
what organization he joined. 

John Calverly (procured by the selectmen from out of town 
to fill quota), enlisted for three years. It is not known what 
organization he joined. 

William J. Card, married ; son of George and Sarah C. ; en- 
listed, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born Nova Scotia, Dec. 12, 1823 ; 
occupation, blacksmith. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. 

Andrew P. Carter, married ; son of Nehemiah ; enlisted, Sept. 
8, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., 
Co. E, M. V. M. Born, 1838 ; occupation, painter. He was 
discharged at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of 
service. 

Charles S. Carter, unmarried ; son of George and Nancy ; 
enlisted, July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 2, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Lancaster, Mass., July 
23, 1843 ; occupation, clerk. He was taken prisoner at battle of 
Newmarket, Va., May 15, 1864 ; was carried to Andersonville, 
Ga., and thence to Florence, S. C, where he died, Oct. 26, 1864. 
of starvation and neglect. 

James D. Carter (procured by the selectmen from out of 
town to fill quota), enlisted for three years. It is not known what 
organization he joined. 

Thomas Cary, married ; son of John and Joanna ; enlisted, 
Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, in 
50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born, Ireland, 1835; occupation, 
shoemaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., Aug. 24, 1863. 
at expiration of service. 

Patrick Casey, married ; son of John and Mary ; enlisted, Aug. 
13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, in 50th 
Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland, June, 1828 ; occupa- 



284 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

tion, shoemaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., Aug. 
24, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Michael Cavey, married ; son of Connors and Joanna ; en- 
listed, Aug. 12, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., M. V. M. Born in Ireland, April 16, 1830; 
occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, 
at the close of war. 

Spencer Chamberlain, unmarried ; son of William and Betsey ; 
enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, North Woodstock, Ct., 
Sept. 9, 1828; occupation, boot-treer. He was on extra duty in 
Chief Q. M. Department after March 29, 1862 ; and was discharged 
at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

David N. Chapin, unmarried ; son of Marvel and Caroline ; 
enlisted, Dec. 31, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Sept. 12, 
1837; occupation, painter. He was promoted to corporal; and 
was discharged at Washington, D. C, July 7, 1864, by reason of 
disability. 

Lorenzo A. Chapman, married ; son of Adams A. and Betsey ; 
enlisted, Aug. 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 15, 1862, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Princeton, Mass., April 
30, 1825 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Boston, 
Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Frederick D. Chase, unmarried ; son of David and Sylvia ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Grafl on, Mass., Oct. 
4, 1846 ; occupation, clerk. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Napoleon Chevalier, enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; 
mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born 
in Canada, 1846 ; occupation, shoe-finisher. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

George S. Chickering, unmarried ; enlisted, July 31, 1862, for 
three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 285 

Vols. Born, 1 844 ; occupation, shoemaker. He died at Florence, 
S. C, while prisoner of war, Nov. 1, 1864. 

William M. Child, married ; son of Thomas and Abial ; en- 
listed, April 30, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia ; rank, corporal. Born, Ux- 
bridge, Mass., March 13, 1827; occupation, merchant. He was 
stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

Ezra Churchill, married ; son of Isaac and Mary G., enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia ; rank, corporal. Born, Plympton, 
Mass., Jan. 18, 1827 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed 
at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

Charles E. Clark, unmarried ; son of Franklin and Mariette ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Springfield, Mass., 
Dec. 24, 1840 ; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Edward Clements (procured by the selectmen from out of 
town to fill quota) ; enlisted for three years. It is not known 
what organization he joined. 

Walter Clemons, unmarried, enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety 
days ; mustered, May 4, 1862, in 6th Unattached Company, Mili- 
tia. Born, Worcester, Mass., 1846; occupation, farmer. He was 
stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

Jefferson K. Cole, married ; enlisted for three years ; mustered, 
July 14, 1863, in 18th Regt., Co. G, Mass. Vols. Born, 1839; 
occupation, teacher. He was transferred to 18th Mass. Battalion, 
July 19, 1864, and thence to 32d Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols., Oct. 
26, 1864, and was discharged at Washington, D. C, June 29, 
1865, at the close of war. 

James Conroy, unmarried ; son of Peter and Elizabeth ; en- 
listed, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Nov., 1845 ; 



286 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

occupation, crimper. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. 

Victor Coolidge, married; son of Maynard and Mary; en- 
listed, Aug. 6, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Canada, Jan. 31, 1838; 
occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. 

John Copeland, unmarried ; son of Thomas and Ann ; enlisted, 
May 10, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Aug. 10, 1840; 
occupation, farmer. He was taken prisoner at second battle of 
Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862, and paroled five days after, and was 
discharged at Alexandria, Va., Jan. 7, 1S63, by reason of disability. 
In April, 1864, he enlisted in 57th Regt, Co. A, Mass. Vols.; 
was wounded in arm and thigh, and taken prisoner, at battle of 
Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; was sent to Richmond, Va., 
and thence to Georgia, where he is supposed to have died of 
starvation. 

Thomas Copeland, unmarried ; son of Thomas and Ann ; en- 
listed, April 19, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 
13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Nov. 13, 1842 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was shot twice through the body at the 
battle of Centreville, Va., Aug. 30, 1862, and died seven hours 
after in an unoccupied house near the field. 

Allan W. Cross, married ; son of Thomas W. and Mary ; 
enlisted, Aug. 7, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 27, 1862, 
in 36th Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born at Hanover, N. H., Aug. 
7, 1837 ; occupation, farmer. He served in armies of the Poto- 
mac, the Ohio, and the Tennessee ; was engaged in fifteen battles ; 
was promoted corporal, sergeant, 1st sergeant, and 1st lieutenant ; 
and was discharged at Alexandria, Va., June 8, 1865, at the 
close of war. 

Patrick Crowe, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ellen ; enlisted, 
Dec. 29, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864; rank, 
corporal. Born in Ireland, 1842 ; occupation, mechanic. He 
served in Army of the Potomac ; was wounded in left leg and spine 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 287 

at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864 ; and was discharged 
at Delaney House, D. C, July 30, 1865, at close of war. 

Michael Crowe, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ellen ; en- 
listed, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland ; occupation, boot- 
maker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close 
of war. 

James Crowe, unmarried ; son of John and Ann ; enlisted, Aug. 
9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. 
A., M. V. M. ; rank, corporal. Born in Ireland, Aug. 18, 1842 ; 
occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 1 7, 
1865, at the close of war. 

John Crowe, unmarried ; son of John and Ann ; enlisted, March 
17, 1864, for three years ; mustered, April 6, 1864, in 57th Regt., 
Co. I, Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, March 10, 1843 j occupa- 
tion, sailor. He was wounded at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 
1864, in right hand, and in the same member at Fort Steadman, 
Va., March 29, 1865. He was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, 
July 30, 1865, at c l° se of war - 

John H. Crowley, unmarried ; son of Peter and Margaret M. ; 
enlisted, May, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 186 1, in 
13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, East Boston, January, 1839 5 
occupation, mechanic. He was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1, 
1864, at expiration of service. 

Gilbert Cummings, Jr., married ; enlisted, November, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Nov. 14, 1862 in 51st Regt, M. V. M. ; 
chaplain. Born, Boston, Mass. ; occupation, clergyman. He 
served in North Carolina, and was discharged at Worcester, Mass., 
July 27, 1863, at expiration of term. He afterward served ninety 
days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1S64) as sergeant in 6th Unattached Com- 
pany, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Wallace H. Cushman, unmarried ; son of William C. and Sarah ; 
enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols.; rank, corporal. Born, Phil- 
lips, Me., Feb. 26, 1841 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was 
wounded at Centreville, Va., and was discharged at Newark, 
N. J., March 23, 1863, b y reason of disability. 



288 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Theodore L. Davis, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. 26, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, 
M. V. M. Born, 1840; occupation, farmer. He was dis- 
charged at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of 
service. 

George L. Davis is said to have enlisted in the 12th Regiment, 
but his name does not appear on the rolls. 

William Dee, unmarried ; son of Matthew and Alice ; enlisted, 
Sept. 25, 1861, for three years; mustered, Oct. 5, 1861, in band 
of 22d Regt., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Jan. 19, 1829; oc- 
cupation, shoemaker. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was 
engaged in five battles ; and was discharged at Harrison's Land- 
ing, Va., Aug. ii, 1862, by order of War Department. 

John Dee, unmarried ; son of Matthew and Alice ; enlisted, 
Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, in 
50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland, March 2, 1838; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., 
Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Reuben Delano, enlisted, Nov. 25, 1862, for three years; 
mustered, Dec. 5, 1862, in 59th Regt., Co. A, Mass. Vols. Born, 
1840 ; occupation, sailor. He was transferred to 57th Regt., Co. 
A, Mass. Vols., and was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, 
July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Godfried Delevenne (secured from out of town to fill quota), 
enlisted for three years in Veteran Reserve Corps. 

William Denny, unmarried ; enlisted for three years ; mus- 
tered, Aug 28, 1861, in 19th Regt., Co. H, Mass. Vols. Born, 
1843; occupation, laborer. He died, June 10, 1862, in Carver 
Hospital, of typhoid fever. 

James Doherty (accredited to Milford), married ; enlisted, July 
17, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 6, 1862, in 33d Regt., 
Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, 1830; occupation, shoemaker. He 
was missing after Feb. 14, 1865, and is supposed to have been 
burned to death while foraging near Columbia, S. C. 

Michael Dolan, unmarried ; son of Timothy and Betsey ; en- 
listed, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 289 

in 50th Regt, Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland, Sept. 8, 1841 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., Aug. 
24, 1863, at expiration of term. He afterward served ten months 
(Aug. 12, 1864, to June 16, 1865) in Co. E, 4th H. A., M. V. M. 
He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1S65, at the close of war. 

Ira L. Donovan, unmarried; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three 
years ; mustered, July 16, 186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; 
wagoner. Born, Hookset, N. H., 1839 ; occupation, laborer. He 
was on extra duty in Q. M. Dept. during entire term, and was dis- 
charged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Jackson Donovan, unmarried ; son of Jeremiah and Mary ; en- 
listed, Nov. 18, 1861, for three years ; mustered, Nov. 18, 1861, in 
32d Regt., Co. A, Mass. Vols. Born, Canton, Pa., July 14, 1839 ; 
occupation, farmer. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was en- 
gaged in twenty-two battles ; was prisoner two days at Appomattox 
Court House, Va. ; and was discharged, Jan. 4, 1864, to re-enlist. 
Discharged at Boston, July 14, 1865, at the close of war. 

Byron Donovan, unmarried j son of Jeremiah and Mary ; en- 
listed, July 28, 1862, for three years ; mustered, Aug. 2, 1862, in 
34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born at Canton, Pa., July 11, 
1842 ; occupation, farmer. He was engaged in three battles ; was 
detailed as chief orderly at Annapolis, Md. ; and was discharged 
at Annapolis, July 1, 1865, at the close of war. 

George R. Douglass, unmarried ; son of George and Helen B. ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, New York, N. Y., Nov. 
5, 1840 ; occupation, clerk. He was detailed as clerk in Gen. 
Com. Dept. ; and was discharged at Washington, D. C, Jan. 29, 
1863, by reason of disability. He afterward served eleven months 
as Q. M. Sergeant in Co. E, 4th H. A., M. V. M. He was dis- 
charged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Charles Drayton, unmarried ; son of Thomas and Jane ; en- 
listed, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 
13th Regt, Co. K, M. V. M. Born, North Bridgewater; occupa- 
tion, painter. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was promoted 
corporal, Sept. 12, 1862 ; and was discharged at Washington, D. C, 
March 30, 1863, by reason of disability. 



290 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Timothy Driscoll (of Holliston, Mass.), unmarried; son of 
James and Ella ; enlisted, Jan. 4, 1864, for three years ; mustered, 
Jan. 14, 1864, in 59th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, 1845 ; 
occupation, shoemaker. He died at Washington, D. C, July 12, 
1864, from the effects of an accident on the field of battle. 

William H. Drummond, unmarried ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for 
ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, 
Militia. Born, Thomaston, Me., 1845 ; occupation, seaman. He 
was stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 
1864, at expiration of service. 

Edwin A. Dudley (enlistment accredited to city of Boston), 
unmarried ; son of Curtis and Olive; enlisted, Sept. 17, 1863, for 
three years; mustered, Oct. 8, 1863, m Co. F, 2d H. A., Mass. 
Vols. Born, 1845 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged, Sept. 
3, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Patrick Dunn, unmarried ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety 
days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. 
Born, Ireland, 1842 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed 
at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

James F. Durgin, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. it, 1864, for one 
year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born, Eaton, N. H., 1844 ; occupation, farmer. He was dis- 
charged, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Thomas B. Dyer, unmarried ; enlisted, July 19, 1861, for three 
years; mustered, July 19, 1861, in 21st Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. 
Born, 1842 ; occupation, printer. He was discharged, Jan. 1, 1864, 
to re-enlist. He re-enlisted for three years, Jan. 1, 1864; was 
transferred to Co. K, 36th Regt., Mass. Vols. ; was transferred, 
June 8, 1865, to 56th Infantry; and was discharged, June 12, 1865, 
at the close of war. 

William H. Edmands, married ; son of William and Margaret ; 
enlisted, Aug. 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 14, 1862, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Taunton, Mass., April 8, 
1837 ; occupation, blacksmith. He was discharged at Portsmouth 
Grove, R. I., June 11, 1863, by reason of disability. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 291 

George F. Emery, unmarried ; son of George B. and Abigail ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Fairfield, Me., Nov. 8, 
1842; occupation, carpenter. He was promoted corporal; was 
detailed in Reg. Q. M. Dept. ; and was discharged at Boston, 
Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Edward S. Esty (enlistment accredited to Southborough), mar- 
ried; enlisted, Sept. 9, 1861, for three years; mustered, Sept. 17, 
1861, in Co. B, 1st Mass. Cavalry. Born, 1822; occupation, 
teamster. He deserted, Jan. 8, 1862. 

Joseph H. Fairbanks, married ; son of Isaiah and Patty ; en- 
listed, April 29, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 
13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Shrewsbury, Mass., Feb. 
24, 1806 ; occupation, sleigh-maker. He was discharged at Cat- 
lett's Station, Va., May 11, 1862, by reason of disability. 

John W. Fairbanks (residence, Roxbury), unmarried; son of 
Joseph H. and Ann E. ; enlisted, April 17, 1861, for three years ; 
mustered, May 24, 1861, in 1st Regt., Co. D, Mass. Vols. Born, 
Westborough, Oct. 12, 1843 ; occupation, clerk. He was wounded 
in left side at battle of Williamsburg, Va., May 5, 1862 ; and was 
discharged at Fort Wood, N. Y. Harbor, March 20, 1863, by rea- 
son of disability caused by wound. He afterwards served nine 
months as 1st lieutenant, 89th U. S. Col. Inf., in Louisiana, and 
was mustered out of service at Port Hudson, La., Aug. 12, 1864, 
by reason of discontinuance of the regiment. • 

Freeman Fairbanks, married ; son of Isaiah and Patty ; enlisted, 
Aug. 5, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Aug. 8, 18 15 ; occu- 
pation, carpenter. He was promoted sergeant, Aug. 16, 1864, and 
was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. He 
had previously served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Hollis H. Fairbanks, unmarried ; son of Freeman and Me- 
linda; enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 
186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Shrewsbury, April 
9, 1843 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was killed at the second 
battle of Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862. 



292 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Henry A. Fairbanks, unmarried ; son of Freeman and Melinda ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Shrewsbury, April 9, 
1843 > occupation, mechanic. He was wounded at the battle of 
Antietam, Md., Sept. 17, 1862, in right side and left hand; and 
was discharged at Boston, Mass., April 23, 1863, by reason of dis- 
ability caused by wounds. He afterward served ninety days 
(May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) as corporal in 6th Unattached Company, 
Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

George W. Fairbanks (enlistment accredited to city of Wor- 
cester), unmarried ; son of Freeman and Melinda ; enlisted, Sept. 18, 

1863, for three years ; mustered, Oct. 8, 1863, m Co. F, 2d H. A., 
Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, May 10, 1846 ; occupation, 
farmer. Discharged Sept. 3, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Willard W. Fairbanks, unmarried ; son of Freeman and Me- 
linda; enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 

1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Dec. 
8, 1846; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Almer R. Fairbanks (enlistment accredited to city of Worcester), 
unmarried; son of Freeman and Melinda; enlisted, Feb. 15, 1865, 
for one year; mustered, Feb. 16, 1865, in 61st Regt., Co. I, Mass. 
Vols. Born, Westborough, March 3, 1841 ; occupation, farmer. 
He served in Army of the Potomac ; was engaged in battle of 
Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865 ; and was discharged in Virginia, 
July 16, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Charles A. Fairbanks, married ; son of Corning and Harriet ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, July 28, 
1836 ; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Benjamin N. Fairbanks, unmarried ; son of Corning and Har- 
riet; enlisted, Feb. 24, 1862, for three years ; mustered, Feb. 24, 
1862, in 32d Regt., Co. F, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
Oct. 20, 1843 j occupation, mechanic. He was wounded in right 
shoulder at Hatcher's Run, Va., Feb. 6, 1865 ; and was discharged 
at Boston, March 13, 1865, at expiration of service. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 293 

James Fanin (secured from out of town to fill quota), is said to 
have enlisted for one year in 1st H. A., Mass. Vols., but his name 
does not appear on the rolls. 

Bernard Fannon, married ; son of Luke and Catherine ; enlisted, 
Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, in 50th 
Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. ; rank, corporal. Born in Ireland, Nov. 3, 
1832 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Wenham, 
Mass., Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. He afterward served 
ten months, as corporal, in Co. E, 4th H. A., M. V. M., and was 
discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Charles M. Fay, unmarried ; son of Joel W. and Lucy D. ; 
enlisted, April 16, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Montague, Mass., April 
16, 1844. He was taken prisoner at Spottsylvania Court House, 
May 22, 1864 ; was wounded three times ; was confined six months 
in Libby Prison, Andersonville, and Millen's Landing ; and was 
discharged, Jan. 26, 1865. He re-enlisted, March 22, 1865, in 
U. S. Veteran Vols., and was discharged, March 22, 1866. 

William W. Fay, unmarried ; son of Joel W. and Lucy D. ; 
enlisted, April 16, 1861, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; rank, sergeant. Born, Ber- 
nardston, Mass., April 30, 1836 ; occupation, shoemaker. He 
was wounded in right arm at battle of Antietam, Md., Sept. 17, 
1862 ; was taken prisoner, and paroled at hospital in Chambers- 
burg, Pa.; and was discharged at Boston, Mass., Dec. 18, 1862, 
by reason of disability caused by wounds. In 1864 he served 
ninety days (May 4 to August 2) as 2d lieutenant in 6th Unattached 
Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. He afterward 
served ten months (Aug. 12, 1864, to June 17, 1865) as 2 & ^ eu " 
tenant in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols., and was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Waldo L. Fay (enlistment accredited to city of Worcester), 
unmarried ; son of Joel W. and Lucy D. ; enlisted, Sept. 1, 1864, 
for one year ; mustered in Co. E, 2d Mass. Cavalry. Born, West- 
borough, Jan. 30, 1847 ; occupation, wheelwright. He served in 
Army of the Shenandoah ; was wounded in wrist in a fight with 
guerillas; and was discharged at Boston, Mass., June 18, 1865, at 



294 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

expiration of service. He had previously served ninety days (May 
4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed 
at Readville, Mass. 

George J. Fayerweather, unmarried ; son of John and Sarah ; 
enlisted, Oct. 28, 1861, for three years ; mustered, Oct. 30, 1861, in 
25th Regt, Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Oct. 25, 1816 ; 
occupation, farmer. He served in armies of North Carolina and 
the Potomac ; was engaged in five battles ; was wounded in right 
arm in front of Petersburg, Va., May 9, 1864 ; was discharged, Jan. 
18, 1864, to re-enlist; and was finally discharged at Greensboro', 
N. C, May 9, 1865, by reason of disability. 

George T. Fayerweather, unmarried ; son of Thomas H. and 
E. A. ; enlisted, Aug. 27, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 
1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. ; rank, 4th sergeant. 
Born, Westborough, Aug. 27, 1840 ; occupation, clerk. He was 
discharged at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of 
service. In 1864 he served ninety days (May 4 to August 2) as 
sergeant in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Read- 
ville, Mass. He afterward served ten months (Aug. 17, 1864, to 
June 17, 1865) as captain, Co. F, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols., stationed 
in the defences of Washington, D. C. ; and was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. His last re-enlistment 
was accredited to West Boylston, Mass. 

Henry E. Fayerweather, unmarried ; son of Thomas H. and 
E. A. ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 
1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, 
April 26, 1843 ; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

David B. Faulkner, married ; son of Festus and Roxy B. ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia ; rank, corporal. Born, West 
Killingney, Ct., June 23, 1828 ; occupation, carpenter. He was 
stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864* 
at expiration of service. 

Festus Faulkner, Jr., unmarried ; son of Festus and Roxy B. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 295 

1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. ; musician. Born, Web- 
ster, Mass., May 3, 1842 ; occupation, carpenter. He was dis- 
charged at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 
He afterward served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

George A. Ferguson, unmarried ; son of Samuel B. and Eme- 
line; enlisted, July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 
1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Troy, Me., Jan. 13, 
1844; occupation, farmer. He was engaged in twenty battles; 
was wounded in left arm at Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864 ; was 
taken prisoner at same time, and carried to Richmond ; was 
paroled, Feb. 16, 1865 ; and was discharged, June 15, 1865, at 
Annapolis, Md., at expiration of service. 

Henry C. Ferguson, unmarried ; son of Samuel B. and Eme- 
line ; enlisted, July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 
1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. ; drummer. Born, Troy, 
Me., Jan. 19, 1847 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged at 
Richmond, Va., June 16, 1865, at the close of war. 

Charles P. Fisher, unmarried ; son of Nahum J. and Lucy P. ; 
enlisted, July 29, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, April 6, 
1843; occupation, clerk. He was discharged, Jan. 14, 1864, to 
accept promotion to 1st lieutenant, 25th U. S. Colored Troops; 
and was afterward promoted to captain. 

William Fisher, unmarried ; enlisted for three years ; mustered, 
Aug. 9, 1862, in 25th Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, 1841 ; occupa- 
tion, clerk. After his enlistment the State records do not account 
for him. 

Henry C. Flagg, unmarried ; son of Elijah and Sarah E. ; en- 
listed, Nov. 30, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 
5 7th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. ; rank, sergeant. Born, Westborough, 
Jan. 25, 1842 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged, June 
13, 1865, by reason of being rendered supernumerary by the con- 
solidation of the 57th and 59th Mass. Vols. 

William C. Fletcher, unmarried; son of Noah and Caroline 
E. ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 
1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Grafton, Sept. 



296 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

21, 1843; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

George W. Fletcher (secured from out of town to fill quota) ; 
enlisted for three years. It is not known what organization he 
joined. 

Patrick Flinn; enlisted Aug. 10, 1864, for one year; mustered, 
Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, 

1842 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 
17, 1865, at the close of war. 

John Fly, married; enlisted, April 19, 1861, for three years; 
mustered, July 16, 186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, 
Me ; occupation, blacksmith. He was wounded in hip at the 
battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 1, 1863. After lying in the field 
three days, he was taken to the hospital, where he died, July 26, 
1863. 

Willis A. Forbes, unmarried ; son of Ephraim and Harriet C. ; 
enlisted, Nov. 30, 1863, for three years ; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, West- 
borough, Jan. 25, 1846 ; occupation, clerk. He was promoted ser- 
geant, June 1, 1864 ; and was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, 
July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Alonzo G. Forbush, married; enlisted, Aug. 7, 1864, for one 
year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born, Westborough Dec. 28, 1832; occupation, mechanic. He 
was promoted sergeant, and was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. He had previously served ninety days 
(May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864), in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. 

William H. Forbush, unmarried ; son of Orestes and Mary W. ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Jan. 16, 

1 843 ; occupation, sleigh-maker. He was wounded in left hand at 
second battle of Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862 ; was transferred to Co. 
C, 3d U. S. Artillery, Jan. 15, 1863, and was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, July 11, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Henry S. Foster, unmarried; enlisted, Sept. 6, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 297 

Born, 1837; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged at Wor- 
cester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

John A. Foster, unmarried; enlisted, Sept. 13, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. 
V. M. Born, 1844; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged 
at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Henry A. Freeman, enlisted for three years; mustered, Feb. 
10, 1865, in Co. C, 2d Mass. Cavalry. Born, 1843. He was dis- 
charged, June 19, 1865, at expiration of service. 

John A. Gilmore, unmarried ; son of John F. and Mary A. ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, June 5, 
1838 ; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

John Glidden, unmarried ; son of Joseph and Rhoda ; enlisted, 
April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Alton, N. H., Sept. 16, 1840; 
occupation, farmer. He was detailed in regimental pioneer corps 
in 1862 ; and was discharged at Boston, Mass., Aug. 1, 1864, at 
expiration of service. 

John H. Goddard, enlisted for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 
1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, 1843. He was 
stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at 
expiration of service. 

Charles A. Goss, unmarried ; son of Alfred and Rebecca ; en- 
listed Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. 
E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Boston, June 
12, 1844; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. He had previously served 
ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) as private in 6th Unattached 
Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Roland Graham (secured from out of town to fill quota) ; en- 
listed for three years. It is not known what organization he 
joined. 

Myron D. Green, unmarried ; son of Charles P. and Hannah 
W. ; enlisted, Nov. 23, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 



298 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

1864, in 57 th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Aug. 
20, 1 848 ; occupation, farmer. He was wounded in right hand 
before Petersburg, Va., June 24, 1864 ; and was discharged at 
Washington, D. C, May 11, 1865, by order of War Department. 

Charles Greenwood, married ; son of Joseph and Betsey ; 
enlisted, Aug. 28, 1861, for three years; mustered, Aug. 30, 1861, 
in 20th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Medfield, Mass., July 1, 
18 1 5. He served in Army of the Potomac; was taken prisoner 
below Petersburg, Va., July 16, 1864; was paroled Dec. 7, 1864, 
and was discharged at Boston, Mass., Jan. 26, 1865, at expiration 
of service. 

Charles O. Greenwood, unmarried ; son of Charles and Char- 
lotte B. ; enlisted, Aug. 5, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 
27, 1862, in 36th Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Douglas, Mass., 
Nov. 16, 1838 ; occupation, seaman. He served in Army of the 
Potomac ; was engaged in battle of Antietam ; was transferred to 
Co. E, 2d U. S. Flying Artillery ; afterward served in Army of the 
Cumberland ; was engaged in ten battles ; was wounded in left leg 
at battle of Cold Harbor ; was detailed as orderly on General Fry's 
staff; and was discharged at Readville, Mass., June 8, 1865, by 
order of War Department. 

William H. H. Greenwood, unmarried ; son of Charles and 
Charlotte B. ; enlisted, Nov. 20, 1863, for three years; mustered, 
Dec. 5, 1863, in 59th Regt., Co. A, Mass. Vols. Born, West- 
borough, March 11, 1840; occupation, bootmaker. He served 
in Army of the Potomac. He was instantly killed, shot through 
the chest, at the battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864. 

Abner R. Greenwood, unmarried ; son of Charles and Char- 
lotte B. ; enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 
16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; rank, sergeant. 
Born, Ashland, Mass., Oct. 6, 1841 ; occupation, shoemaker. 
He was wounded at battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, in right 
shoulder and knee ; was taken prisoner at Chambersburg, Pa., 
and released a fortnight after; and was discharged at Germantown, 
Pa., Oct. 27, 1863, by reason of disability. He afterward re-en- 
listed in Veteran Reserve Corps as 1st sergeant in 13th Regt., 
Co. K. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 299 

George F. Hale, unmarried ; son of Sumner ; enlisted, July 24, 
T862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, in 34th Regt, 
Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Fitchburg, May, 1845 ; occupation, 
student. He was discharged, June 16, 1865, at expiration of 

service. 

Francis Hanley (enlistment accredited to Northborough) , mar- 
ried ; enlisted, Jan. 27, 1862, for three years; mustered, Jan. 27, 
1862, in 15th Regt., Co. H, Mass. Vols. Born, 1835 ; occupa- 
tion, farmer. He died of wounds, July 5, 1862. 

Michael C. Hannon, unmarried ; enlisted, Aug. 13, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, in 50th Regt, Co. I, 
M. V. M. Born, 1840; occupation, farmer. He was dis- 
charged at Wenham, Mass., Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of 
service. 

John W. Haraden, unmarried ; son of Thomas and Tem- 
perance ; enlisted, Sept. 16, 1861, for three years; mustered, 
Oct. 30, 1 86 1, in 25th Regt., Co. G, Mass. Vols. Born, Dor- 
chester, Dec. 28, 1808 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was dis- 
charged, Sept. 25, 1862, by reason of disability. 

George C Haraden, unmarried ; son of John W. and Eliza 
N. ; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 

186 1, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
July 10, 1843 ; occupation, shoemaker. He died of heart-disease 
at Williamsport, Md., Dec. 22, 1861. 

Charles H. Hardy, unmarried ; son of Charles S. and Susan 
M. ; enlisted, July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 

1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
March 19, 1844; occupation, blacksmith. He was engaged in 
sixteen battles; and was discharged at Richmond, Va., June 16, 
1865, at expiration of service. 

Frederick Harrenslayer (secured from out of town to fill 
quota) ; enlisted for three years. It is not known what organiza- 
tion he joined. 

Charles A. Harrington, married ; son of Samuel A. and 
Catherine; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, 
May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, West- 



300 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

borough, June 16, 1831 ; occupation, mason. He was stationed 
at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expira- 
tion of service. 

Francis Harrington, married; enlisted, Aug. 26, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, 
M. V. M. Born, 1820; occupation, carpenter. He was de- 
tailed as regimental carpenter ; and was discharged at Worcester, 
July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Frank A. Harrington, unmarried ; son of Francis ; enlisted, 
June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, South Boston, 1843 ; occupation, 
mechanic. He was discharged at Boston, July 20, 1864, at ex- 
piration of service. 

Edwin F. Harrington, unmarried; enlisted, April 28, 1864, 
for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Com- 
pany, Militia. Born, Boston, Mass., 1845 ; occupation, carpenter. 
He was stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 
1864, at expiration of service. 

Charles L. Harrington, unmarried ; son of Lawson and 
Lovicy W. ; enlisted, Nov. 16, 1861, for three years; mustered, 
Nov. 25, 1 86 1, in 32d Regt., Co. A, Mass. Vols. Born, West- 
borough, April 7, 1839 ; occupation, mechanic. He was dis- 
charged at Harrison's Landing, Va., July 29, 1862, by reason of 
disability. 

Henry A. Harris (enlistment accredited to Holliston), un- 
married ; son of Rufus and Elvira G. ; enlisted, May 20, 1861, 
for three years; mustered, July 2, 1 861, in 16th Regt., Co. B, 
Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, May 19, 1840 ; occupation, 
clerk. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was wounded in left 
leg at battle of Gettysburg, Pa. ; was promoted Q. M. sergeant, 
April 4, 1862 ; 2d lieutenant, June 4, 1S63, to date Nov. 30, 
1862 ; was promoted 1st lieutenant, May 4, 1863 ; and resigned 
as 2d lieutenant at Georgetown, D. C, Dec. 19, 1863, by reason 
of disability caused by wounds. 

John K. Harrison (secured from out of town to fill quota), en- 
listed for three years. It is not known what organization he joined. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 301 

John A. Hart, unmarried; enlisted, Nov. 24, 1863, for three 
years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 57th Regt, Co. B, Mass. Vols. 
Occupation, baker. He was wounded at battle of Wilderness, 
Va., May 6, 1864, in breast and both arms, in consequence of 
which he died at Heywood Hospital, Washington, D. C, May 
26, 1864. 

George E. Hartwell, married ; son of Leonard and Abigail ; 
enlisted, Aug. 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 14, 1862, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, West Boylston, Mass., 
March 24, 1824; occupation, carpenter. He was wounded at 
Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, in left elbow; was taken prisoner at 
Chambersburg, Pa., and exchanged, Dec. 8, 1862 ; and was dis- 
charged at Boston, Jan. 9, 1863, by reason of disability caused by 
wounds. 

Lyman Haskell, unmarried ; son of Asa and Achsa C. ; en- 
listed, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Nov. 7, 
1837; occupation, shoemaker. He was wounded in the breast 
at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; and was discharged at 
Boston, Mass., Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Charles B. Haskell, unmarried ; son of Asa and Achsa C. ; 
enlisted, April 30, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, Oct. 
14, 1844; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at Read- 
ville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of 
service. 

Abner W. Haskell, unmarried ; son of Asa and Achsa ; en- 
listed, Dec. 1, 1861, for three years ; mustered, Dec. 1, 1861, in 
24th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Oct. 29, 
1839 ; occupation, mason. He served in North Carolina, Florida, 
and Virginia. Died, Aug. 29, 1864, at Beverly, N. J., from the 
effect of a wound in the thigh received at battle of Deep Run, Va., 
Aug. 16, 1864. 

Bowers C. Hathaway, married ; son of Ennis and Clarissa C. ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Freetown, Mass., 
March 18, 1823 ; occupation, carpenter. He was stationed at 



302 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

James Hayward, enlisted for three years ; mustered, Feb. 8, 
1865, in 58th Regt., Co. H, Mass. Vols. Born, 1846. He was 
discharged, July 14, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Thomas R. Hazzard, enlisted for nine months in a Maine 
regiment. 

Patrick Heaphy, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. n, 1864, for one 
year ; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. ; 
rank, corporal. Born in Ireland, 1844 ; occupation, mechanic. 
He was promoted sergeant, Feb. 24, 1865, and was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at close of war. 

Carlos T. Heath, enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, 
1843 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged, June 17, 1865, at 
the close of war. 

Charles S. Henry, unmarried ; son of Samuel G. and Pennilia ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Oakham, Mass., July 
2, 1844 ; occupation, clerk. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

John M. Hill, unmarried ; son of Levi and Lucy M. ; enlisted, 
Feb. 17, 1862, for three years; mustered, Feb. 17, 1862, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, March 25, 1829; 
occupation, shoemaker. He was transferred to 39th Regt., Mass. 
Vols., July 13, 1864, and was discharged, Feb. 17, 1865, at expira- 
tion of service. 

Hiram G. Hodgkins, unmarried ; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for 
three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. 
Vols. Rank, corporal. Born, Waterville, Vt., 1837; occupation, 
shoemaker. He gave up his warrant as corporal in 186 1 to accept 
detail in Q. M. Dept. ; and was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

James H. Holland, unmarried ; son of James F. and Sarah S. ; 
enlisted, Nov. 25, 1863, for three years ; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Boston, Sept. 10, 1847 > 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 303 

occupation, clerk. He was discharged at Boston, Aug. 2, 1865, 
at close of war. 

Charles M. Howe, son of Silas and Persis ; enlisted, Aug. 9, 
1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. 
A., Mass. Vols. ; rank, sergeant. Born, Holden, Mass., Jan. 27, 
1 84 1 ; occupation, watchman. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Charles S. Howe, unmarried ; son of Silas and Mary E. ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, Aug. 26, 
1848 ; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

John W. Howe, unmarried ; son of John and Mary C. ; enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Boylston, Mass., July 8, 
1845 ; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Myron J. Horton, enlisted, Aug. 27, 1862, for nine months; 
mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt, Co. E, M. V. M. Born, 
1 84 1 ; occupation, salesman. He was discharged at Newbern, 
N. C, Jan. 16, 1863, by reason of disability. He afterward served 
ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached Company, 
Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Edward Hudson, unmarried ; son of Nathan and Orrilla ; en- 
listed, Aug. 26, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, 
in 51st Regt, Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Upton, Mass., Sept. 18, 
1840; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Worcester, 
Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. In 1864 he served 
ninety days (May 4 to August 2) as private in 6th Unattached Com- 
pany, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. He afterward served 
ten months as sergeant in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols., and was 
discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Elijah C. Janes, unmarried ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety 
days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, 
Militia. Born, Sturbridge, Mass., 1833 ; occupation, farmer. He 
was stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 



304 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Antonio Joan, unmarried ; enlisted, Nov. 24, 1863, for three 
years ; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. ; 
rank, sergeant. Born, Sicily, July 4, 1845 > occupation, black- 
smith. He was wounded in right hand at battle of Spottsylvania 
Court House, Va., May 18, 1864, and was discharged at Delaney 
House, D. C, July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

John W. Johnson, married ; son of John and Jemima ; enlisted, 
Sept. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 
51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Shrewsbury, June 21, 1822 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Worcester, July 27, 

1863, at expiration of service. 

William H. Johnson (of Northborough), unmarried ; enlisted, 
Aug. 20, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st 
Regt., Co. C, M. V. M. Born, 1840 ; occupation, engineer. 
He was promoted corporal, Dec. 24, 1862 ; and was discharged 
at Worcester, Mass., July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

John Jones, unmarried ; son of Stephen and Mary ; enlisted, 
April 16, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Lebanon, Me., 
June 11, 1837; occupation, carpenter. He was discharged at 
Alexandria, Va., Jan. 9, 1863, by reason of disability. In 1864 he 
served ninety days (May 4 to August 2) as 1st lieutenant in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. He 
afterward served ten months as 1st lieutenant in Co. E., 4th H. A., 
Mass. Vols., and was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the 
close of war. The last enlistment was accredited to Chicopee, 
Mass. 

Samuel R. Jones, unmarried ; son of Stephen and Mary ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864. in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Lebanon, Me., February, 
1840; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864. at expiration of service. 

Edward Keevan (of Worcester), unmarried; son of John and 
Nora; enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 

1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Novem- 
ber, 1842 ; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at expiration of service. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 305 

Thomas Keevan, married ; son of John and Nora ; enlisted, 
Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, in 
50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland. Aug. 22, 1828 ; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., 
Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. 

John Kelly, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. 12, 1864, f° r one 
year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born in Ireland, 1844; occupation, farmer. He was discharged 
in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Francis E. Kemp, unmarried ; son of Asa and Mary A. ; enlisted, 
July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, in 34th 
Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Boston, July 2, 1843 ; occupa- 
tion, mechanic. He was wounded in left thigh and taken prisoner 
at battle of Lynchburg, Va., June 18, 1864, and was carried to 
Andersonville, Ga., where he died, Oct. 24, 1864, °f chronic 
diarrhoea. Adjutant-General's report says that he died at Millen, 
Ga., Nov. 1, 1864. 

Charles W. Kidder, unmarried ; enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one 
year; mustered, Aug. 13, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born, Boston, Mass., 1845; occupation, clerk. He was discharged 
in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. He had previously 
served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached 
Company, Militia, stationed at Readville Mass. 

Patrick Kilkenny, married ; son of Michael and Catherine A. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 7, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, March 16, 1832 ; 
occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. 

William B. Kimball, married ; son of James and Emily ; enlisted, 
June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; rank, 1st sergeant. Born, Oakham, 
June 2, 1833 ; occupation, farmer. He was promoted commissary 
sergeant, March 1, 1862; 2d lieutenant, May 25, 1862; 1st 
lieutenant, Feb. 27, 1863; and captain, Oct. 4, 1863. Dis- 
charged, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Frederick W. Kimball, married ; son of Noah and Martha W. ; 
enlisted for three years; mustered, Sept. n, 1861, in band of 



306 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

2 2d Regt., Mass. Vols. ; musician. Born, Grafton, Mass., Feb. 8, 
1833 ; occupation, mechanic. He served in Army of the Potomac, 
and was discharged, Aug. 11, 1862. Jan. 24, 1865, he was com- 
missioned 2d lieutenant, 5th Mass. Cavalry ; was promoted to 1st 
lieutenant and asst. com. serg., May 26, 1865 ; and was discharged, 
Oct. 31, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Charles A. Kirkup, unmarried ; son of James and Elizabeth ; 
enlisted, Nov. 30, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Newton, Aug. 7, 1848; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was wounded in left leg and taken 
prisoner at battle of Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864 ; was recaptured 
eight days after ; and was discharged at Baltimore, Md., July 30, 
1865, by reason of disability. 

Alvah B. Kittredge, unmarried ; son of Charles B. and Sarah 
B. ; enlisted, July 7, 1864, for one hundred days; mustered, July 
17, 1864, in Co. B, 6th Regt., M. V. M. Born, Westborough, 
Feb. 3, 1845 ; occupation, student. He was stationed at Arlington 
Heights and at Fort Delaware, and was discharged, Oct. 27, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

George A. Lackey (enlistment accredited to Easton, Mass.), 
married; son of Asa and Miranda W. ; enlisted, Feb. 11, 1864, for 
three years; mustered, March 1, 1864, in 58th Regt., Co. D, Mass. 
Vols.; rank, sergeant. Born, Hopkinton, Mass., May 22, 1838; 
occupation, machinist. He served in Army of the Potomac ; lost 
left leg at battle of Spottsylvania Court House, Va., May 12, 1864, 
and was discharged, March 11, 1865, by reason of disability. He 
had previously served nine months (Sept. 23, 1862, to June 26, 
1863) in 3d Regiment, and one year in 7th Regiment. 

Robert S. Lackey, unmarried ; son of Asa and Miranda W. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 26, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, 
in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Westborough, Sept. 17, 
1 84 1 ; occupation, hostler. He was discharged at Boston, July 27, 
1863, at expiration of service. 

Charles T. Lackey, unmarried ; son of Asa and Miranda W. ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days j mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, March 
30, 1845 ; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at Read- 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 307 

ville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1865, at expiration of 
service. 

John Lackey, unmarried ; son of Simeon and Harriet M. ; en- 
listed, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 
13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Hopkinton, Dec. 29, 1835 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was detailed as teamster, and was dis- 
charged, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

George B. Lakin (of Worcester), unmarried ; son of Ansel and 
Susan B. ; enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year ; mustered, Aug. 12, 
1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. ; drummer. Born, Worces- 
ter, Oct. 2, 1847 ; occupation, student. He was discharged, June 
17, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Charles H. Lamson, unmarried ; son of William P. and Eliza ; 
enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year ; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, m 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, North Brookfield, Mass., 
April 2, 1843 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

John Laflin, married; enlisted, Nov. 23, 1863, f° r three years; 
mustered, Nov. 28, 1863, in Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique ; leader. 
Occupation, click. He served in Louisiana, and was discharged at 
New Orleans, Aug. 12, 1865, at the close of war. 

Joseph Lebeau, unmarried ; son of Joseph and Christiana ; en- 
listed, April 27, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Montreal, Canada, Jan. i, 
1842 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Edward Lee, unmarried; enlisted, June 29, 186 1, for three 
years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. 
Born in Ireland, 1 83 1 ; occupation, tailor. He was wounded near 
Spottsylvania Court House, Va., May 9, 1864, and was discharged 
at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Erastus M. Lincoln, enlisted for three years ; mustered, Feb. 
15, 1865, in 33d Regt., Co. D, Mass. Vols. Born, 1828. He was 
discharged, June 29, 1865, at the close of war. 

John Little, unmarried ; son of George W. and Mary ; enlisted, 
Dec. 10, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. n, 1864, in 57th 



303 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Regt., Co. H, Mass. Vols. Born, Haverhill, Mass., Aug. 2, 1845 ; 
occupation, painter. He was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, 
July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

William C. Loker (enlistment accredited to Blackstone, Mass.), 

unmarried; son of William and ; enlisted, Aug. 22, 1864, 

for one year; mustered, Aug. 22, 1864, in Co. F, 4th H. A., 
Mass. Vols. Born, Natick, 1846 ; occupation, farmer. He died at 
Falls Church, Va., Jan. 9, 1865, of typhoid pneumonia. He had 
previously served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Charles E. Long, unmarried ; son of William R. and Mary S. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, 
in 5 1 st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Northborough, Oct. 2, 1840 ; 
occupation, mechanic. He was discharged at Worcester, July 27, 

1863, at expiration of service. 

Joseph G. Longley, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. 20, 1862, for 
nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. C, 
M. V. M. ; rank, corporal. Born, 1823 ; occupation, teacher. He 
was discharged at Worcester, July 27, 1863, at expiration of 
service. 

Charles O. Longley, married ; son of Jonas and Susan ; en- 
listed, April 30, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, July 20, 
1824; occupation, mechanic. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

George A. Longley, unmarried ; son of James A. and Harriet 
A. ; enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 

1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, 
Dec. 31, 1847; occupation, painter. He was stationed at Read- 
ville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of 
service. 

Richard Loughlin, unmarried ; son of John and Ellen ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Dec. 8, 1841 ; occupa- 
tion, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at 
the close of war. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 309 

Alden Lovell, married ; son of Moses and Sally ; enlisted, 
April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Worcester, Sept. 1, 1831 ; occu- 
pation, shoemaker. He was wounded in right arm at second battle 
of Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862 ; and was discharged at Alexandria, 
Va., Feb. 14, 1863, by reason of disability caused by wound. 

Charles Q. Lowd, unmarried ; son of Leavitt and Betsey ; en- 
listed, Aug. 26, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, 
in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. He was discharged at Newbern, 
N. C, Jan. 16, 1863, by reason of disability. March 23, 1864, he 
enlisted in 57th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; was detailed as clerk 
at 1st Division headquarters ; and was discharged at Delaney House, 
D. C, July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Edward Lowell, unmarried ; son of Bonaparte and Lucretia ; 
enlisted, Dec. 14, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Lanesborough, Mass., 
Feb. 18, 1847 > occupation, farmer. He was promoted corporal, 
May 7, 1864 ; and was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, July 
30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Robert H. Lowheed (secured from out of town to fill quota) 
is said to have enlisted for three years in 1st Mass. Battery, but 
his name does not appear upon the rolls. 

Elisha S. Lucas, unmarried; enlisted, Sept. 22, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 23, 1862, in 4th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. 
Born, 1839 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Lakeville, 
Mass., Aug. 28, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Michael Lynch, unmarried; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three 
years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. 
Born in Ireland, 1841 ; occupation, boot-fitter. He was dis- 
charged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

William Magner, unmarried ; son of James and Ann ; enlisted, 
Dec. 4, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 57th 
Regt, Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Boston, Sept. 22, 1845 ; occu- 
pation, farmer. He was wounded at battle of Spottsylvania Court 
House, May 12, 1864; was promoted 1st sergeant, Jan. 1, 1865 ; 
and was discharged at Delaney House, D. C, July 30, 1865, at 
expiration of service. 



310 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

James Mahoney, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ann ; enlisted, 
Aug. 4, 1861, for three years; mustered, Aug. 7, 1861, in 15th 
Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Fall River, Dec. 25, 1842 ; occu- 
pation, fireman. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was engaged 
in twelve battles; was wounded in head, face, and legs at Get- 
tysburg, July 2, 1863 ; was promoted 1st sergeant, Nov. 30, 
1862 ; and was discharged at Baltimore, Md., Sept. 26, 1864, by 
reason of disability. 

Samuel W. Mann, unmarried ; son of Ichabod and Sarah ; en- 
listed, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. 
E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Landgrove, N. H., Oct. 30, 
1839 ; occupation, currier. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, Co. F, 
Aug. 17, 1864; resigned at Fort Ward, Va., March 28, 1865, by 
reason of disability caused by old wounds. He had previously 
served as private, sergeant, and 2d lieutenant in 20th Regt., Mass. 
Vols., and as captain in 54th Regt., Mass. Vols. While in the latter 
regiment he was wounded at Fort Wagner, S. C. His enlistments 
in 20th and 54th Regiments are accredited to Boston. 

Jeremiah W. Marsh, married ; son of Jeremiah and Nancy ; 
enlisted, March 31, 1864, for three years; mustered, April 6, 1864, 
in 57th Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Exeter, Me., Oct. 18, 
1831 ; occupation, carpenter. He died of wounds, May 6, 1864. 

Thomas Martin, married; enlisted, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, in 50th Regt, Co. I, M. V. M. 
Born, 1822 ; occupation, laborer. He was discharged at Wenham, 
Mass., Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Patrick McCarthy, unmarried ; son of Jeremiah and Mary ; 
enlisted, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months ; mustered, Sept. 29, 1862, 
in 50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born, Boston, Sept. 22, 1844; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., 
Aug. 24, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Daniel McCarthy, unmarried ; son of Jeremiah and Mary ; 
enlisted, March 16, 1864, for three years ; mustered, April 6, 1864, 
in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Boston, May 19, 1840; 
occupation, mechanic. He was wounded in right hand at battle 
of Spottsylvania, Va., May 12, 1864; was promoted corporal, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 311 

Jan. 1, 1865 ; and sergeant, May 1, 1865 ; and was discharged at 
Delaney House, D. C, July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

John McCarthy (secured from out of town to fill quota) , en- 
listed for three years. It is not known what organization he joined. 

Michael McCoy, married; enlisted, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine 
months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, in 50th Regt., Co. I, M.V. M. 
Born, 1840; occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged at Wen- 
ham, Mass., Aug. 24, 1S63, at expiration of service. 

William McCoy, unmarried ; son of John and Mary ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th 
H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, March 12, 1846; occupa- 
tion, shoemaker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, 
at close of war. 

Timothy McCue, unmarried; enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one 
year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, m Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born in Ireland, 1845 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Thomas McHough, enlisted, Aug. 12, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in 
Ireland, 1841 ; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

George A. McKendry, married ; son of Albert G. and L. V. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A, Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Dorchester, 
Mass., Oct. 1, 1837 ; occupation, carpenter. He was discharged 
in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Richard McNulty (secured from out of town to fill quota), 
enlisted for three years. It is not known what organization he 
joined. 

Daniel B. Miller (of Boston), unmarried ; enlisted, May 24, 
1861, for three years; mustered, May 24, 1861, in 1st Regt, 
Co. D, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 1834 ; occupation, driver. 
He was appointed regimental wagon-master; and was killed at 
Groton, Conn., June 15, 186 1, by being thrown under the cars 
while the regiment was on its way to Washington, D. C. 



312 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Josiah W. Miller, married ; son of Joel and Mary ; enlisted, 
April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Cambridgeport, July 29, 
1823; occupation, click. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

William A. Miller, unmarried ; son of Asa R. and Hannah T. ; 
enlisted April 28, 1864, for three months; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, Feb. 
2, 1846; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Lowell P. Mitchell, unmarried ; son of William W. and 

; enlisted for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 



4th H. A., Mass. Vols. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. 

John Mockley, unmarried ; son of John and Catherine V. ; 
enlisted, July 24, 1862, for three years ; mustered, July 25, 1862, in 
34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Albany, N. Y., July 5, 
1845 > occupation, student. He was wounded in the leg at battle 
of Charlestown, Va., Oct. 20, 1863 ; was taken prisoner at battle of 
Newmarket, Va., May 15, 1864; was carried to Andersonville, 
Ga., thence to Florence, S. C. ; and was discharged at Richmond, 
Va., June 15, 1865, at expiration of service. 

John W. Moody, unmarried ; son of Israel and Rachel ; enlisted, 
Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, m Co. E, 4th 
H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, South Boston, May 19, 1845 ; occu- 
pation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, 
at the close of war. He had previously served ninety days (May 4 
to Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at 
Readville, Mass. 

John Morin (of Worcester), married ; enlisted for three years ; 
mustered, July 23, 1862, in 1st Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, 1836; 
occupation, shoemaker. There is no account of him on the rolls 
after his enlistment. 

Andrew Morrissey, enlisted, Aug. 12, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in 
Ireland, 1837 ; occupation, currier. He was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 313 

George B. Morse, married ; son of Berriah and Betsey ; en- 
listed, July 19, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 10, 1862, in 
9th Light Battery, Mass. Vols. Born, Wilmot, N. H., March 5, 
1 83 1 ; occupation, blacksmith. He served in Army of Potomac ; 
was engaged in thirteen battles ; and was discharged at Boston, 
June 6, 1865, at expiration of service. 

William Mortimer (secured from out of town to fill quota) ; 
enlisted for three years. It is not known what organization he 
joined. 

John Murphy (of Boston) is said to have enlisted for three 
years in 1st Mass. Battery, but his name does not appear on the 
rolls. 

Thomas Murphy, married ; son of Timothy and Margaret ; en- 
listed, Aug. 13, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 30, 1862, 
in 50th Regt., Co. I, M. V. M. Born in Ireland, May 26, 1836 ; 
occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Wenham, Mass., 
Aug. 24, 1863, at expiration of service. In 1864 he served ninety 
days (May 4 to Aug. 2), in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. He was mustered, Sept. 3, 1864, in 
4th Mass. Cavalry ; was wounded in thigh at High Bridge, Va., and 
was discharged at Richmond, Va., May 22, 1865, at expiration of 
service. His last enlistment was accredited to town of Oxford, 
Mass. 

Frank A. Newton, unmarried ; son of Daniel F. and Amy A. ; 
enlisted, April 30, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
ill 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Roxbury, Mass., Nov. 
19, 1845 ; occupation, student. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Augustus F. Nichols, unmarried ; son of Fortunatus and Irene ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Westborough, July 
24, 1847 ; occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Charles C. Nichols, unmarried ; son of Fortunatus and Irene ; 
enlisted for three years ; mustered, Sept. 11, 1861, in band of 2 2d 
Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Dec. 8, 1840; occupa- 



314 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

tion, farmer. He served in Army of the Potomac ; and was dis- 
charged by Act of Congress, Aug. u, 1862. 

S. Whitney Nourse, unmarried ; son of Rufus and Ellen B. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Southborough, Dec. 10, 
1848; occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 
17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Michael O'Dea, enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born 
in Ireland, 1843 ; occupation, currier. He was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Charles O. Parker, unmarried ; son of George W. and Euse- 
bia; enlisted, Aug. 22, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 
25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Westborough, 
Aug. 6, 184 1 ; occupation, clerk. He was discharged at Worcester, 
July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. In 1864 he served ninety 
days (May 4 to Aug. 2), in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Charles H. Pierce, married ; son of John H. and Eliza ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia; rank, corporal. Born, West- 
borough, Aug. 1, 1832; occupation, civil engineer. He was 
stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

Marshall S. Pike, unmarried ; enlisted for three years ; mus- 
tered, Sept. 11, 1 86 1, in band of 2 2d Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, 
1818 ; occupation, musician. He served in Army of the Potomac, 
and was discharged, Dec. 25, 1862. 

Michael Powers, unmarried ; son of Richard and ; en- 
listed, July 25, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 15, 1862, in 
34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, June 27, 1843 ; 
occupation, student. He was taken prisoner at Newmarket, Va., 
May 15, 1864 ; was carried to Andersonville, Ga., and was paroled 
after six months. He was discharged at Richmond, Va., June 16, 
1865, at the close of war. 

Edmund H. Priest, married ; son of Abel and Eunice M. ; en- 
listed, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 315 

Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, April 23, 
182 1 ; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Martin Quinn, unmarried ; son of John and Bridget ; enlisted, 
Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, 1844; occupation, 
bootmaker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at 
the close of war. 

Amos Rice, married ; son of Josiah and Charlotte B. ; enlisted, 
July 14, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, in 34th 
Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Framingham, April 6, 1819; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged at Richmond, Va., 
June 16, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Charles A. Rice (of Boston), unmarried ; son of Charles P. and 
Jane N. ; enlisted, Aug. 28, 1862, for nine months; mustered, 
Oct. 11, 1862, in 43d Regt., Co. A, M. V. M. Born, West- 
borough, April 26, 1840; occupation, clerk. He was stationed 
in North Carolina ; was engaged in three battles ; was promoted 
corporal, Aug. 28, 1862 ; and was discharged at Readville, Mass., 
July 30, 1863, at expiration of service. 

Henry G. Rice, unmarried ; enlisted for three years ; mustered, 
Nov. 7, 1861, in 30th Regt., Co. D, Mass. Vols. Born, 1834; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was discharged, Dec. 8, 1862, by 
reason of disability. 

John Rice, married, son of John and Mary; mustered Aug. 18, 

1862, in 36th Regt, Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland; occu- 
pation, laborer. He was transferred to Invalid Corps, Aug. 18, 

1863, and was discharged, June 12, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Henry V. Richards, enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, 
Hopkinton, 1841 ; occupation, hatter. He was discharged in Vir- 
ginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Arthur W. Robbins (enlistment accredited to Northborough), 
unmarried ; son of Chandler and Frances ; enlisted, Aug. 25, 1864, 
for one year ; mustered, Aug. 25, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., 
Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Dec. 23, 1848; occupation, mar- 



3l6 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

ble-worker. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the 
close of war. He had previously served ninety days (May 4 to 
Aug. 2, 1864) in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at 
Readville, Mass. 

Chandler Robbins, married ; son of Chandler and Eleanor ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Plymouth, Feb. 11, 1819 ; 
occupation, mechanic. He was detailed as hospital steward ; was 
taken prisoner at Fitzhugh Hospital, opposite Fredericksburg, Va., 
June 15, 1863, and escaped, June 30, 1863. He was discharged 
at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Edward Roberts, unmarried; enlisted, Sept. 22, 1861, for 
three years; mustered, Oct. 7, 1861, in 25th Regt., Co. E, Mass. 
Vols. Born, 1839 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged, 
Jan. 2, 1864, to re-enlist; re-enlisted, Jan. 3, 1864, and was dis- 
charged, July 13, 1865, at expiration of service. 

John Roberts (secured from out of town to fill quota) is said 
to have enlisted in the 54th Regiment, but his name does not 
appear on the rolls. 

James F. Robinson, unmarried ; son of James and Lydia ; en- 
listed, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, 
in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. Born, Brookline, Sept. 8, 1838 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was discharged at Worcester, July 27, 
1863, at expiration of service. In 1864 he served ninety days 
(May 4 to Aug. 2) as corporal in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, 
stationed at Readville, Mass. 

John T. Robinson, unmarried ; son of James and Lydia ; en- 
listed, April 28, 1864, for ninety days ; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 
6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Brookline, Aug. 17, 
1845 j occupation, farmer. He was stationed at Readville, Mass., 
and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

William E. Rogers, enlisted for three years ; mustered, Feb. 7, 
1865, in 25th Regt., Co C, Mass. Vols. Born, 1837. He was 
discharged, July 13, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Harvey C. Ross, married; son of Elijah and Clarissa; enlisted, 
April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 317 

Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Walpole, N. H., Nov. 22, 1S35 ; 
occupation, bootmaker. He was wounded in side and arm at 
battle of Gettysburg, July 1 , 1 863 ; was taken prisoner and re- 
leased on third day ; was again a prisoner four days at battle of 
Wilderness, Va. ; and was discharged at Portsmouth Grove, R. I., 
July 16, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Thomas Russell, enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, 
Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, 
1844; occupation, currier. He was discharged in Virginia, June 
17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Alfred L. Sanborn, married ; son of Greenleaf C. and Eleanor 
J. ; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 
1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols.; rank, corporal. Born, 
Boston, July 28, 1835 ; occupation, farmer. He was taken pris- 
oner at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, and paroled, July 4, 1863; was 
promoted sergeant; and was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, 
at expiration of service. 

John W. Sanderson, unmarried ; son of John and Eliza ; en- 
listed, April 19, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 17, 1861, in 
13th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 22, 
1 S3 2 ; occupation, wire-worker. He was promoted first lieutenant, 
Oct. 16, 1861 ; resigned, July 19, 1862, by reason of disability. 
He afterwards served eleven months as first lieutenant in 51st 
Regt., Co. A, M. V. M. He then served one year as captain 
in 57th Regt., Mass. Vols.; was wounded in left leg at Spottsyl- 
vania Court House, Va., May 12, 1864; and was discharged at 
Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1864, by reason of disability caused 
by wound. 

Francis H. Sandra, married ; son of Francis H. and Mary J. 
E. ; enlisted, Nov. 23, 1863, for three years; mustered, Nov. 28, 
1863, in Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique. Born, Boston, March 17, 
1844; occupation, mechanic. He served in Louisiana, and was 
discharged at New Orleans, Aug. 1 2, 1 865 , at close of war. 

John W. Sanger (of Hopkinton), married; enlisted for three 
years; mustered, Feb. 24, 1862, in 1st H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born, 1834; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged, Feb. 
27, 1865. 



3 18 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

John G. Sargent, enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; 
mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. 
Born, Aroostook County, Me., 1843 ; occupation, farmer. He 
was stationed at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 
1864, at expiration of service. 

George B. Searles (enlistment accredited to Boston), unmar- 
ried ; son of Curtis and Abigail ; enlisted, June 29, 1 861, for three 
years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. 
Born, West .Newton, Jan. 9, 1839; occupation, clerk. He was 
discharged at Portsmouth Grove, R. I., March 27, 1S63, by reason 
of disability. In 1864 he served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2) 
as sergeant in 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at 
Readville, Mass. 

George W. Searles, unmarried ; son of Andrew and Elizabeth ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Palmer, Mass., Dec. 
4, 1845 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Foster Shambeau, unmarried; son of Jake and Mary; enlisted, 
April 30, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th 
Unattached Company, Militia. Born, Montreal, Canada, April 3, 
1844; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed at Readville, 
Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Patrick J. Sheehan, unmarried ; son of John and Mary ; en- 
listed, Aug. 6, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in Ireland, Sept. 12, 1842 ; 
occupation, tailor. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, 
at the close of war. 

Prescott Sibley, married ; son of James and Cleora ; enlisted, 
Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, m Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. : rank, corporal. Born, Westborough, 
June 13, 1832 ; occupation, mechanic. He was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

William H. Sibley, married ; son of Silas and Lorinda ; enlisted, 
April 29, 1 86 1, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th 
Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, April 2, 182 1 ; oc- 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 319 

cupation, wheelwright. He was wounded in left knee at battle 
of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862 ; was taken prisoner and paroled at 
Chambersburg, Pa., Oct. 10, 1862 ; and was discharged at Boston, 
Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

James Slattery, unmarried; enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three 
years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. 
Born in Ireland, 1841 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was dis- 
charged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Thomas Slattery, enlisted, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born 
in Ireland, 1822 ; occupation, laborer. He was discharged in 
Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Herbert O. Smith, unmarried ; son of Timothy A. and Corelia 
M. ; enlisted, March 31, 1864, for three years; mustered, April 6, 
1864, in 57th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Gloucester, Mass. ; 
occupation, farmer. He was wounded in the face at battle of 
Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; was taken prisoner at North Anna, 
May 24, 1864 ; and died in prison at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 28, 

1864, of chronic diarrhoea. 

Silas P. Squier, married ; son of Solomon and Lovica ; enlisted, 
Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Canada, May 23, 1828; occupa- 
tion, carpenter. He was discharged at Worcester, May 25, 1865, 
at expiration of service. 

Jeremiah Staples, married ; son of Nathaniel and Abigail ; en- 
listed, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, Temple, Me., Sept. 1, 182 1 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 

1865, at the close of war. 

Samuel O. Staples, unmarried ; son of Samuel B. and Lucerne ; 
enlisted, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 
1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V M. Born, Temple, Me., April 
6, 1843 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was discharged at Worces- 
ter, July 27, 1863, at expiration of service. 

William H. Stevens, non-resident of the town, secured by the 
selectmen to fill quota ; enlisted for three years. It is not known 
what organization he joined. 



320 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Edgar V. Stone, unmarried; son of Liberty and Mary; en- 
listed, March 16, 1865, for one year; mustered, March 16, 1865, 
in 61st Regt., Co. G, Mass. Vols. Born, Upton, Aug. 21, 1850; 
occupation, mechanic. He served in Army of the Potomac, and 
was discharged at Baltimore, Md., June 9, 1865, at the close of war. 

Frank A. Stone (residence, Toulon, 111.), unmarried ; son of 
Jonas and Achsah ; enlisted, Aug. 12, 1862, for three years; mus- 
tered, Sept. 20, 1862, in 1 1 2th Regt., Co. F, Illinois Infantry. 
Born, Westborough, March 1, 1844; occupation, butcher. He 
served in Army of the Ohio ; was engaged in twenty- five battles ; 
and was discharged at Chicago, 111., July 6, 1865, at close of war. 
Accredited to town of Toulon, 111. 

Frank L. Stone, unmarried ; son of Jonathan and Hannah ; 
enlisted, June 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt, Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, July 14, 
1835; occupation, mechanic. He was promoted corporal; and 
was discharged at Alexandria, Va., Sept. 5, 1862, by reason of dis- 
ability. He was commissioned second lieutenant in 35th U. S. 
Colored Troops in May, 1863 ; was promoted first lieutenant and 
quartermaster in 39th U. S. Colored Troops in Oct., 1863 ; and 
was discharged in Sept., 1865. 

Frank S. Stone, unmarried ; son of Elisha J. and Elizabeth A. ; 
enlisted, Feb. 8, 1865, for one year; mustered, Feb. 8, 1865, in 
61st Regt., Co. I, Mass. Vols. Born, Hopkinton, April 7, 1848 ; 
occupation, shoemaker. He served in Army of the Potomac; 
and was discharged June 20, 1865, at the close of war. He had 
previously served one hundred days (Aug. 16 to Nov. 26, 1864) in 
23d Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

George H. Stone (residence, Toulon, 111.), unmarried ; son of 
Jonas and Achsah; enlisted, for three years; mustered in 19th 
Regt., Co. B, Illinois Infantry. Born, Westborough, Oct. 4, 1840; 
occupation, butcher. He served in Army of the Cumberland ; 
was discharged at Chicago, 111., June, 1864, at expiration of ser- 
vice. Accredited to town of Toulon, 111. 

J. Henry Stone, married ; enlisted for three years ; mustered, 
Feb. 25, 1862, in Co. A, 1st Battery H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, 
1829; occupation, farmer. He was discharged, Feb. 27, 1865. 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 321 

James H. Sullivan, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ellen ; en- 
listed, Aug. 12, 1861, for three years ; mustered, Aug. 12, 1861, in 
21st Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, March 10, 
1845; occupation, farmer. He served in North Carolina, and 
was killed at battle of Newbern, N. C, March 14, 1862, by a bullet 
through the neck. 

Timothy G. Sullivan, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ellen ; 
enlisted, Dec. 1, 1863, for three years ; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 
57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, June 8, 1846 ; 
occupation, miller. He was wounded in left foot at battle of Wil- 
derness, Va., and was discharged at Washington, D. C, May 11, 
1865, by reason of disability. 

Andrew Sullivan (accredited to city of Worcester) ; unmar- 
ried; son of Michael and Ellen ; enlisted, Aug. 13, 1864, for one 
year; mustered, Aug. 15, 1864, in Co. F, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. 
Born, Westborough, March 7, 1848; occupation, farmer. He was 
discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

J. Frank Sweeney, married; enlisted, July 24, 1862, for three 
years ; mustered, July 31, 1862, in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. ; 
bugler. Born, 1838. He was discharged at Frederick, Md., July 
17, 1864, by reason of disability. 

Solomon J. Taft, married ; son of John W. and Sabrina ; enlisted, 
Sept. 11, 1861, for three years; mustered, Sept. 23, 1861, in band 
of 22d Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, Williston, Vt., Aug. 19, 1828; 
occupation, mechanic. He served in Army of the Potomac ; was 
discharged at Harrison's Landing, Va., by Act of Congress, Aug. 
11, 1862. He afterwards served twenty months in brigade band, 
Corps d'Afrique, stationed in Louisiana, and was discharged at 
New Orleans, July 20, 1865, by reason of disability. 

Squire S. Tidd, unmarried ; son of William and Luthera ; 
enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; mustered, May 4, 1864, 
in 6th Unattached Company, Militia ; rank, third sergeant. Born, 
Woburn, Feb. 17, 1822 ; occupation, currier. He was stationed at 
Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expiration 
of service. 

Alfred L. Trowbridge, unmarried ; son of William and Ange- 
line; enlisted, March 21, 1862, for three years; mustered, March 



322 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

21, 1862, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, 
1844; occupation, wheelwright. He was discharged at Washing- 
ton, D. C, May 24, 1862, by reason of disability. In 1864 he 
served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2) in 6th Unattached Company, 
Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Melzar G. Turner, unmarried ; son of Sidney S. and Mary L. ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, New Portland, Me., 
June 29, 1842 ; occupation, mechanic. He was promoted cor- 
poral ; and was discharged at Washington, D. C, Sept. 4, 1862, 
by order of President Lincoln. 

Cephas N. Walker, unmarried ; son of Nathan S. and Mary A.; 
enlisted, July 15, 1862, for three years; mustered, July 31, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Barre, 
June 3, 1843 ; occupation, farmer. He was wounded in right foot 
at Winchester, Va., Sept. 19, 1864 ; was promoted sergeant, Jan. 1, 
1863; and was discharged, July 6, 1865, at expiration of service. 

George A. Walker, enlisted, Aug. 9, 1864, for one year; mus- 
tered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born, 
Claremont, N. H., 1834; occupation, mason. He was discharged 
in Virginia, June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Irving E. Walker (accredited to city of Boston), unmarried; 
son of Silas, Jr., and Louisa A.; enlisted, March 28, 1864, for 
three years ; mustered, March 28, 1864, in 19th Regt., Co. A, 
Mass. Vols. Born, West Boylston, Aug. 2, 1839; occupation, 
farmer. He served in Army of the Potomac; was engaged in 
seven battles ; was taken prisoner at Petersburg, Va., June 2 2, 1 864, 
and carried to Andersonville, Ga. ; thence to Florence, S. C, where 
he died, Nov. 1, 1864, of starvation and exposure. 

Lyman S. Walker, unmarried ; son of Nathan S. and Lydia C. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 4, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 15, 1862, 
in 34th Regt., Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, Barre, May 9, 1840; 
occupation, farmer. He was promoted corporal, Jan. 12, 1865 ; 
and was discharged at Richmond, Va., June 16, 1865, at expira- 
tion of service. 

Melvin H. Walker, unmarried ; son of Silas, Jr., and Louisa A. ; 
enlisted, April 25, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 323 

in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Barre, Jan. 23, 1842 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was wounded in right foot at battle of 
Gettysburg ; was a prisoner three days at the same time ; was 
promoted corporal, then sergeant ; and was discharged at Boston, 
Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of service. 

Austin Wallace, married; enlisted for three years; mustered, 
Sept. 23, 1861, in band of 22d Regt., Mass. Vols. Born, 1831 ; 
occupation, bootmaker. He served in Army of the Potomac, and 
was discharged by Act of Congress, Aug. 11, 1862. 

Charles A. Ware, enlisted, April 28, 1864, for ninety days; 
mustered, May 4, 1864, in 6th Unattached Company, Militia. 
Born, Oakham, 1 846 ; occupation, shoemaker. He was stationed 
at Readville, Mass., and was discharged, Aug. 2, 1864, at expira- 
tion of service. 

William R. Warner, unmarried ; son of George G. and Jane 
E. B. ; enlisted, April 29, 186 1, for three years ; mustered, July 16, 

1861, in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. ; rank, 4th sergeant. Born, 
Walpole, N. H., May 6, 1842 ; occupation, clerk. He was pro- 
moted second lieutenant, June 30, 1863, first lieutenant, May 1, 
1864, and was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at expiration of 
service. 

George W. Warren, unmarried ; son of William and Betsey C. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 26, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 

1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. ; rank, third sergeant. 
Born, Hopkinton, April 20, 1840; occupation, clerk. He was 
discharged at Newbern, N. C, March 3, 1863, by reason of dis- 
ability. He had previously served three months in Co. D, 3d 
Battery Rifles, stationed at Fort McHenry, Md. In 1864 he 
served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2) as 1st sergeant in ,6th Unat- 
tached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville, Mass. 

Harris C. Warren, unmarried ; son of Isaac F. and Martha A. ; 
enlisted, Dec. 1, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 1864, in 
57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, May 5, 1846 ; 
occupation, farmer. He was wounded in face and left shoulder in 
front of Petersburg, Va., Oct. 8, 1864; was taken prisoner, March 
25, 1865 ; was exchanged March 30, 1865 ; and was discharged at 
Annapolis, Md., May 24, 1865, by order of War Department. 



324 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Stephen Warren, unmarried ; son of Josiah and Elizabeth ; 
enlisted, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, 
in 13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Westborough, Oct. 1, 
1833; occupation, farmer. He was detailed in Frederick City, 
Md., Hospital, and was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1, 1864, at 
expiration of service. 

Salem T. Weld, married ; son of Willard and Mary C. ; enlisted 
for three years ; mustered, Sept. n, 1861, in band of 22d Regt., 
Mass. Vols. Born, Holland, Sept. 19, 1830; occupation, musician. 
He served in Army of the Potomac, and was discharged at Alex- 
andria, Va., March, 1862, by order of the colonel. 

John C. Wheeler, married ; son of Ephraim and Charlotte ; 
enlisted, Nov. 23, 1863, for three years; mustered, Dec. 6, 1863, 
in Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique. Born, Fletcher, Vt., Sept. 14, 
1833 ; occupation, musician. He had previously served ten 
months (Oct. 5, 1861, to Aug. 11, 1862) in band of 22d Regt., 
Mass. Vols. 

Charles H. Williams, married ; son of William and Mary ; en- 
listed, April 29, 1861, for three years; mustered, July 16, 1861, in 
13th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, New York, April 5, 1829 ; 
occupation, carpenter. He was transferred to Regimental Band, 
Aug. 7, 1861 ; and was discharged at Warrenton, Va., Aug. 27, 
1862, by reason of Act of Congress. He afterwards served twenty- 
two months in Brigade Band, Corps d'Afrique, stationed in Louisiana. 

Charles P. Winslow, married ; son of Theron and Phebe I. ; 
enlisted, Aug. 25, 1862, for nine months; mustered, Sept. 25, 
1862, in 51st Regt, Co. E, M. V. M. ; rank, first lieutenant. 
Born, Stockholm, N. Y., Sept. 22, 1831 ; occupation, grocer. He 
was discharged at Worcester, July 27, 1863, at expiration of ser- 
vice. In 1864 he served ninety days (May 4 to Aug. 2) as cap- 
tain, 6th Unattached Company, Militia, stationed at Readville. 
He afterwards served eleven months as captain of Co. E, 4th 
H. A., Mass. Vols.; and was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 
1865, at the close of war. His last enlistment is accredited to the 
town of Chicopee. 

Frederick A. Wiswall, unmarried ; son of Amasa C. and Cla- 
rissa; enlisted, July 31, 1S62, for three years ; mustered, Aug. 2, 



RECORDS OF SOLDIERS. 325 

1862, in 34th Regt, Co. C, Mass. Vols. Born, 1842 ; occupation, 
farmer. He was discharged for promotion to second lieutenant in 
75th U. S. Colored Infantry, Nov. 13, 1863. 

Daniel T. Witherbee, unmarried ; son of Silas and Lois ; en- 
listed, Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in 
Co. E, 4th H. A., Mass. Vols. ; rank, corporal. Born, Essex, Vt., 
Nov. 24, 1823 ; occupation, click. He was discharged in Virginia, 
June 17, 1865, at the close of war. 

Harlan F. Witherby, unmarried ; son of Rufus L. and Mary 
A.; enlisted, Dec. 2, 1863, for three years; mustered, Jan. 4, 

1864, in 57th Regt., Co. B, Mass. Vols. Born, Grafton, Feb. n, 
1846; occupation, farmer. He was promoted corporal, May 1, 

1865, and sergeant, July 1, 1865 5 an ^ was discharged at Delaney 
House, D. C, July 30, 1865, at expiration of service. 

Edwin D. Wood, married; enlisted, Aug. 26, 1862, for nine 
months ; mustered, Sept. 25, 1862, in 51st Regt., Co. E, M. V. M. ; 
rank, corporal. Born, 1841 ; occupation, mechanic. He was 
discharged at Newbern, N. C, Jan. 16, 1863, by reason of 
disability. 

Robert Woodman, married ; son of George and Ann ; enlisted, 
Aug. 8, 1864, for one year; mustered, Aug. 12, 1864, in Co. E, 
4th H. A., Mass. Vols. Born in England, March 30, 1823 ; occu- 
pation, mechanic. He was discharged in Virginia, June 17, 1865, 
at the close of war. 

Samuel Woodside, married ; son of Samuel and Margaret ; en- 
listed, Aug. 5, 1862, for three years; mustered, Aug. 27, 1862, in 
36th Regt., Co. K, Mass. Vols. Born, Calais, Me., Sept., 1820 ; 
occupation, carpenter. He served in Armies of Potomac, Ohio, 
and Tennessee ; was engaged in six battles ; was wounded in right 
thigh at battle of Rice's Station, Tenn., Nov. 16, 1863 ; and 
was discharged at Alexandria, Va., June 8, 1865, at expiration of 
service. 

Joseph W. Wright, enlisted for one year; mustered, Feb. 8, 
1865, in 6 1 st Regt., Co. I, Mass. Vols. Born, 1844. He was 
discharged, June 7, 1865, by order of War Department. 



326 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



RECORD OF SEAMEN AND OFFICERS — NAVAL SERVICE. 

Ira Barker, of Westborough, is said to have enlisted in the 
navy ; but no such name can be found on the rolls as accredited 
to Westborough. 

Samuel N. Brigham, unmarried; son of Harrison F. and Susan ; 
entered service, April 7, 1863, as landsman on the "Henry Brin- 
ker." Born, Westborough, Nov. 23, 1843; occupation, mechanic. 
He was engaged in blockade service ; and was discharged at Nor- 
folk, Va., April 9, 1864, at expiration of service. 

David N. Chapin, unmarried ; son of Marvel and Caroline ; 
entered service, June 13, 1861, as private in U. S. Marine Corps. 
He served on the " Potomac " and the "Brookline." Born, West- 
borough, Sept. 12, 1837; occupation, painter. He was engaged 
in the battle of New Orleans, and was discharged at Chelsea Naval 
Hospital, Mass., March 16, 1863, by reason of disability. 

Patrick Crow, unmarried ; son of Michael and Ellen ; entered 
service, July 29, 1861, and served as private in U. S. Marine 
Corps on the "Congress," the " Powhattan," and the "Vermont." 
Born in Ireland, 1842 ; occupation, mechanic. He was engaged 
in the battle between the " Congress " and the ironclad " Merri- 
mac" near Fortress Monroe, Va., March 8, 1862 ; was on the ves- 
sel when she went down, and swam ashore. He was discharged 
at Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 3, 1862, by reason of disability. 

William H. H. Greenwood, unmarried • son of Charles and 
Charlotte B. ; entered service, July, 1862, as able seaman on the 
"Albatross." Born, Westborough, March n, 1840; occupation, 
whaler. He served in siege of Port Hudson and other actions, 
and was discharged at New Orleans, July, 1863, at expiration of 
service. 

Albert E. Harlow, unmarried ; son of Asa and Betsey ; en- 
tered service, Sept. 23, 1864, as able seaman. Born, Windsor, Vt, 
May 30, 1840; occupation, mariner. He was engaged in battle 
at Fort Fisher, N. C, Jan. 15, 1865 ; was wounded in left hand 
and body; was promoted captain of maintop, Nov. 11, 1864; 



RECORDS OF SEAMEN AND OFFICERS. 327 

and was discharged at Charlestown, Mass., July 19, 1865, at close 
of war. 

Samuel B. Kinders, unmarried ; son of Samuel and Nancy ; 
entered service, May 16, 1863, as landsman. He served on the 
"Henry Hudson," the "Midnight," and the " Somerset." Born, 
Framingham, Sept. 17, 1845. He was engaged in battles of Fort 
Fisher, Fort Morgan, and St. Andrews ; was promoted seaman ; 
and was discharged at Brooklyn, N. Y., June 11, 1865, at expira- 
tion of service. Accredited to town of West Roxbury, Mass. 

Albert L. Lowd, unmarried ; son of Leavitt and Betsey ; en- 
tered service, Oct. 18, 1863, as landsman on the "Hendrick Hud- 
son." Born, Boston, Oct. 5, 1847; occupation, laborer. He 
was engaged in the blockade service, and was discharged at New 
York, Nov., 1864, at expiration of service. 

Daniel McCarthy, unmarried ; son of Jeremiah and Mary ; 
entered service, Feb. 15, 1862 (being transferred from 36th N. Y. 
Infantry), as seaman on the " Cincinnati." Born, Boston, May 19, 
1840; occupation, mechanic. He was engaged in battle of 
Island No. 10, Fort Pillow, and Vicksburg; acted as second- 
class fireman; and was discharged at Cairo, 111., Dec. 20, 1862, 
in accordance with medical survey. 

William A. Smith, unmarried ; son of Timothy A. and Corelia 
M. ; entered service, June 21, 1862, as third assistant engineer. 
He served on the " Sonora " and the " Philadelphia." Born, Glou- 
cester, March 23, 1836; occupation, civil engineer. He was 
engaged in six battles ; was promoted second assistant engineer, 
July 30, 1864. 

Caleb Tarr, formerly a Gloucester fisherman, enlisted in the 
navy from Westborough. 



CHAPTER III. 

1866-1876. 

THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. — FIRES AND NEW BUILD- 
INGS. — CELEBRATIONS. 

" I ''HE war had scarcely come to an end before the 
patriotic citizens of many Northern towns sought, 
by some appropriate memorial, both to express their 
gratitude to the heroes who had died in defending their 
country, and to perpetuate the memory of their sacrifice. 
The people of Westborough took action with commend- 
able promptness. At the annual town-meeting in March, 
1866, it was voted to erect "a granite monument in mem- 
ory of our soldiers who have fallen in the late war, to be 
placed in the cemetery opposite the Town Hall; " and a 
committee, "consisting of John A. Fayerweather, Lyman Bel- 
knap, and John Homan, was instructed to select a suitable 
design. The committee reported in favor of a monument 
similar to one which had just been erected at Newton, 
and its report was accepted by the town, April 1, 1867. 
Another committee was immediately chosen to superin- 
tend the building of a memorial in accordance with the 
design selected. It consisted of John A. Fayerweather, 
Zebina Gleason, and Lyman Belknap ; but on account of 
Mr. Fayerweather's resignation and Mr. Gleason's death, 
Reuben Boynton and Timothy A. Smith were added to 
the committee before the completion of the work. 

The location of the monument was for some time a 
matter of contention. Many citizens were in favor of 



THE SOLDIER'S MONUMENT. 329 

erecting it in the Square ; and a vote so to do was passed, 
but was afterwards rescinded in favor of the cemetery 
opposite the Town Hall. The material selected was 
finely hammered Concord granite. The monument was 
completed in 1869. Its cost was about $4,300. It is by 
no means an elaborate memorial, but plain, unpreten- 
tious, and tasteful. The total height is twenty-eight feet. 
The base, sub-base, and plinth are three feet and nine 
inches high; the die is six feet; and over all is a square 
shaft, with chamfered corners and sunk panels moulded. 
On the front of the monument is the inscription, — 

THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. 

ERECTED BY THE TOWN, 1868. 

PRO PATRIA MORTUI SUNT. 

Chiselled on its granite tablets are the names of the 
fallen soldiers : — 

Minot C. Adams. William H. H. Greenwood. 

William H. Blake. Francis E. Hanley. 

Herbert W. Bond. George C. Haraden. 

John S. Burnap. Henry A. Harris. 

Charles S. Carter. John A. Hart. 

George S. Chickering. Abner W. Haskell. 

John Copeland. Francis E. Kemp. 

Thomas Copeland. William C. Loker. 

William Denny. Jeremiah W. Marsh. 

Timothy Driscoll. Daniel B. Miller. 

Hollis H. Fairbanks. Herbert O. Smith. 

John Flye. James H. Sullivan. 
Irving E. Walker. 

The dedication of the monument took place on June 
17, 1869. It was a beautiful day; and the deep interest 
of the occasion attracted a large gathering. A platform, 
for the committee and those who participated in the exer- 



330 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

cises, had been erected near the entrance of the cemetery. 
The exercises began at two o'clock, when Dr. William 
Curtis, president of the day, called upon the Rev. W. G. 
Todd, pastor of the Unitarian Church, to offer prayer. 
Then came the singing of an appropriate ode, under the 
direction of S. Dexter Fay. Lyman Belknap, in behalf 
of the committee, made a report, and, after relating the 
history of the enterprise from beginning to completion, 
formally surrendered the monument to the town. Charles 
P. Rice, chairman of the board of selectmen, made a fit- 
ting speech in acceptance. Then followed the dedicatory 
address by the Rev. C. W. Flanders, D.D., pastor of the 
Baptist Church. He referred to the great antiquity of 
monuments, their meaning and purpose, and emphasized 
the truth that they should keep green the memory of 
great deeds, and should never immortalize vice. This 
monument, which they were dedicating, he said, was a 
tribute appropriate and well deserved ; for it was in mem- 
ory of noble young men, once residents of the town, whose 
valor, as they went forth to fight and fall in a cause ap- 
proved of God, won the sincerest admiration. 

At the conclusion of Dr. Flanders's address, the as- 
semblage crossed to the Town Hall, where the remaining 
exercises were held. Dr. George B. Loring, of Salem, the 
present Minister to Portugal, had been invited to deliver the 
oration. He was somewhat late, but impromptu addresses 
by Abijah Wood, a former resident of W 7 estborough, who 
had moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., and by S. Taylor 
Fay, filled the interval before his arrival. The oration 
aroused much enthusiasm. After eulogizing the character 
of Washington, and paying an impressive tribute to the 
stern patriotism of Revolutionary heroes, the orator set 
forth in vivid language its modern counterpart, as exem- 



NEW BUILDINGS. 33 1 

plified in the sacrifices of the dead soldiers in whose mem- 
ory the monument was erected. 

At the close of his eloquent tribute, the singing of a 
hymn, written for the occasion by Miss Eliza Evans, 
brought the exercises to an end. 

The spring of 1869 saw the completion of another im- 
portant undertaking, — the building of Post-Office Block. 
The old Parkman Store, which had stood on the site for 
seventy years, was burned to the ground on the night 
of March 28, 1868. Aid from Northborough and from 
Woodville saved adjoining property from destruction. The 
burned building was an old wooden two-story structure, 
interesting for its associations, but, like many other land- 
marks, no great ornament to the village. John A. Fayer- 
weather, who had owned it wholly or in part for thirty-two 
years, in company with Albert J. Burnap and George O. 
Brigham, immediately set about the erection of the brick 
three-story block now standing on the site. It was com- 
pleted in the following spring, and in June the Post-Office 
was moved from the corner of Main and South Streets to 
the new building. It has remained there ever since, and 
given the building the name of Post-Ofnce Block. This 
was the first of the modern business blocks erected in 
Westborough, and the general sentiment on the occasion 
is interesting. " Without doubt," said the Saturday Even- 
ing Chronotype and Weekly Review, — to give the local 
paper of the day its official name, — "it is one of the best 
and completest structures of the kind in this vicinity, and 
it is metropolitan in style throughout. As we have re- 
marked, it is a gratifying index to our prosperous town, 
destined, as we confidently believe, to be the largest man- 
ufacturing village in this vicinity. Ten years ago the want 
of such a building could hardly be said to exist, but now 



332 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

it is otherwise, and as a community we have a right to 
pride ourselves on the munificent manner in which the 
want has been met and filled." 

The town had already begun to feel its change from 
a farming to a manufacturing community, and the decade 
from 1866 to 1876, in addition to Post-Office Block, saw 
considerable building in the centre of the village. Among 
the important changes was the remodelling of the Town 
Hall, in 1867. The work was under the direction of a 
committee consisting of Greenleaf C. Sanborn, Curtis Bee- 
man, Albert J. Burnap, George B. Brigham, and George 
H. Raymond. The change consisted in raising the build- 
ing twelve feet, and putting an addition of twenty-six feet 
on the rear. The alterations cost about $18,000, and, 
although the expense was heavy, Westborough was pleased 
with the result ; but the poet at the dedication of North- 
borough's excellent Town Hall a year later, was able to 
twit the mother town in the following fashion : — 

But one thing you have done, depend upon it! 

On this I ought to write a sonnet. 

You .'ve stirred up envy in each neighboring town, 

And on you, for a season, they '11 be " down." 

At first, they asked, " What do these feeble Jews?" 

Their bold derision only could amuse. 

"Is little Northborough, youngest of the flock 

Of ' Borough ' towns, to beat the parent stock?" 

True, Mother Westborough has given her hall a dressing, 

But she will give her daughter such a blessing ! 

The pert young minx, to go and build of brick, 

And humble thus her mother's pride so slick 1 

But " her mother's pride " has never been sufficiently 
strong to cause the erection of a new hall. 

In 1868, Reuben Boynton erected his block on Main 
Street, and moved his market from the basement under 
D. S. Dunlap & Son's present store to the street floor of 
the new building. Meat had hitherto been sold only in 



o 

o 
*l 

o 

H 

a 

r 
o 
o 



CO 

o 




NEW BUILDINGS. 333 

basements, or from " butcher's carts " in the Square, and 
the novelty of a market above ground excited consider- 
able comment. 

In 1869, Bacon & Williams built a large sleigh-shop at 
the corner of Milk and Phillips Streets. H. O. Bernard 
& Co. erected their factory for making straw goods in 
the winter of 1870. American Block was erected by D. W. 
Forbes and J. H. Holland in 1871 ; and during the same 
year the American Straw Sewing Machine Company built 
the shop now occupied by the Leicester Piano Company, 
near the head of Summer Street. The old Union Block, 
where Spaulding's Block now stands, was burned on the 
night of April 14, 1872, and the present structure soon 
afterward took its place. In 1873, the building next to 
the Westborough Hotel, on South Street, was erected by 
George H. Raymond and Charles D. Cobb; and in 1874, 
Alvan Davenport built his grain store on Milk Street. 

The churches, too, felt the stimulus of the town's 
growth. In 1864, the Methodists had built their present 
house of worship. The Baptists, in 1869, sold their meet- 
ing-house to the Roman Catholics, who moved it to a lot 
on Milk Street. It had already been moved to the site of 
the present Baptist parsonage to make room for the new 
church, which was completed, at a cost of $21,000, in 1869. 
During the same year, the former parsonage on South 
Street having been sold to L. R. Bates and J. E. Parker 
in 1866, the Society erected their present parsonage on 
land given for the purpose by Deacon Lyman Belknap. 
The Evangelical Society also rebuilt and enlarged their 
church in 1869; and in 1872, partly with a legacy of 
$2,000 from Albert W. Smith, built their parsonage on 
Church Street. 

The improvement in streets and sidewalks kept pace 



334 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

with the improvement in buildings. In 1872, the county 
roads from the Southborough line to the Silas Howe 
place on the Grafton road, and from the Square to the 
"No. 4" School-house, — Main Street and South Street, 

— were re-located, and in many places widened. Con- 
crete sidewalks were laid as an experiment in 1873 ; 
and so satisfactory was the result that during the fol- 
lowing year the town expended, including assessments, 
$2,065.20 for these excellent walks. By yearly appro- 
priations of about $500, the walks, at present about 
eleven miles in extent, have been extended to all parts of 
the village. The town also began to take an interest in 
shade trees; and in 1876 the trees in "Centennial Park," 
along the northeast side of Milk Street, were set out. The 
Village Improvement Society has since carried on the 
work, with a result that is appreciated more and more 
each year. 

During the night of June 17, 1873, the town suffered 
another disastrous fire. The three wooden buildings which 
occupied the site of the present Central and Henry Blocks 

— known as Corner Block, Eagle Block, and the Protective 
Union Store — were burned to the ground. The rest of 
the village barely escaped destruction ; but aid from 
Northborough and from Woodville again came to the 
rescue, and the steamer "Gov. Lincoln" — which came 
from Worcester in twelve minutes — rendered efficient 
service. The loss was estimated at $40,000. It was an 
incendiary fire, and Antonio Joan, who roomed in Eagle 
Block, is now serving a life sentence in the State prison 
for setting it. The site was too valuable to remain vacant, 
and the two present buildings were immediately erected, 
one by S. G. Henry, and the other by Samuel M. Griggs 
and George O. Brigham. 



ANNIVERSARY. 335 

In the spring of 1875, tne °ld wooden railroad station, 
against which the community had protested for a dozen 
years, gave place to the present structure. The tracks, 
which had previously run on each side of the old station, 
were moved to the north of the new one, and the sur- 
roundings were otherwise improved. Although now in 
appearance and accommodations inferior to many, the 
station at Westborough was at that time called the best 
between Boston and Worcester. 

The closing years of the decade (1 866-1 876) saw two 
interesting and noteworthy celebrations in Westborough. 
The first was the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
founding of the first church. It took place on October 28, 
1874, — one of the loveliest days of the year. The Evan- 
gelical Church, which was beautifully decorated for the 
occasion with flowers and evergreens, was filled to over- 
flowing. The names of the pastors from the founding 
of the church were conspicuous among the decorations 
in the rear of the pulpit, as follows : — 

1724-1874. 

Parkman. Beers. 

Robinson. Cady. 

Rockwood. Sheldon. 

KlTTREDGE. DEAN. 

De Forest. 

The exercises were opened with reading of Scripture, 
and prayer, by the Rev. Mr. Willard, of Marlborough. 
The historical address, tracing the organization and growth 
of the church, was delivered by the pastor, the Rev. Hi P. 
De Forest. At its close, dinner was served in the Town 
Hall to some six hundred persons. Hon. Samuel M. 
Griggs was master of ceremonies. After-dinner speeches 
were made by the pastors of the local churches, and of 



336 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the churches in neighboring towns. At the close of the 
exercises in the Town Hall, the audience assembled again 
in the church, where a praise service, conducted by Moses 
H. Sargent, of Boston, was held. At its close, the former 
pastors of the church who were present — the Rev. Charles 
B. Kittredge, the Rev. Daniel R. Cady, D.D., and the Rev. 
Luther H. Sheldon — were escorted to the pulpit. Each 
made appropriate remarks, and several letters from per- 
sons unable to be present were read. In the evening 
the celebration was brought to an end by a large social 
gathering in the vestry of the church. 

In 1876 came another occasion of great interest, — the 
celebration of national independence. A hundred years 
had passed since the Colonies had shaken off the yoke 
of England, and become an independent nation. From 
thirteen States they had increased to thirty-seven, from 
three million people to over forty million. The prosperity 
which had attended their century of existence, and the suc- 
cess of republican government, made a celebration of the 
hundredth national birthday a joyful and inspiring event. 
The Great Exposition at Philadelphia drew, it was esti- 
mated, three hundred persons from Westborough ; but 
the local celebration on the Fourth of July is the event 
with which our history is chiefly concerned. Throughout 
the land, nearly every city, town, and village arranged a 
special observance of the anniversary. In Westborough 
preparations began early, and were elaborately carried out. 
The great day came on Tuesday. On the Sunday pre- 
ceding, in accordance with the President's proclamation, 
special services with reference to the occasion were held 
at the different churches. For days before the Fourth, 
the small boys tooted horns, and wasted fire-crackers and 
torpedoes, with more than ordinary zeal. Monday was 



THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 337 

spent in decorating stores, residences, and factories, and 
in preparing for the grand illumination. The national 
colors, in flags and streamers, moving gracefully in the 
breeze, met the eye on every side. By sunset the pre- 
parations were complete; and at eight o'clock, as if by 
magic, a scene of brilliancy burst forth that was prob- 
ably never equalled in Westborough. Chinese lanterns 
and scores of candles, tastefully arranged, illumined al- 
most every building on the principal streets. The " small 
boy," alive to the importance of the occasion, added the 
din of torpedoes, crackers, and horns to the pleasure of 
the scene. During the whole night Young America kept 
up the music; and at sunrise the pealing of bells an- 
nounced that the nation's hundredth birthday had arrived. 
At six o'clock, the " Horribles," with their ridiculous dis- 
guises, — Indians, minstrels, beasts, and the rest, — par- 
aded through the village. The more dignified procession 
began its march at nine o'clock, in the following order : — 

Chief Marshal. 
GEORGE T. FAYERWEATHER. 

Aids. 
L. J. Elwell. T. B. Smart. 

O. C. Jaquith. Willard Comey. 

F. W. Moses. C. A. Harrington. 

S. O. Staples. John Hayden. 

F. W. Powers. 

Westborough Cornet Band. 
Eighteen members : M. G. Turner, leader. 

Fire Department. 

Under command of Assistant Engineer S. W. Mann. 

Chauncy Engine Company, No. i, thirty men; C. H. Williams, 

Foreman. 



338 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Steamer Jackson, No. 2, twenty men ; Silas H. Brigham, Assistant 
Foreman, in place of D. P. Brigham, Foreman. 

First Division. 

G. J. Jackson, Marshal : Aids, D. D. Dinan and C. E. Smith. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians, forty men. 

Second Division. 
L. P. Day, Marshal : Aids, P. Maguire and G. W. Graves. 
Drum Corps, eight members. 
Lyman Cadets, about sixty members ; Lyman Engine Company, with 
engine, twenty-six members ; and other boys, two hundred and 
twenty in number, all from the State Reform School, — headed 
by G. W. Sullivan, Drum Major. 

Third Division. 

G. L. Smith, Marshal : Aids, James Donovan and James E. Quinn. 

The Continental Congress, represented by sixteen members of the 
Young Men's Debating Society. 

Tableau Car, containing fourteen young ladies, one representing the 
Goddess of Liberty, and the others the thirteen original States. 

Carriages, containing the orator of the day, Rev. H. P De Forest ; 
Chaplain, Rev. Z. A. Mudge; Committee of Arrangements, Dr. 
William Curtis, M. H. Walker, C. E. Fay, H. B. Nourse, 
Wm. Magner, and J. H. Sawyer. 

After passing through the principal streets, the proces- 
sion, followed by a long line of carriages, proceeded to 
the Grove at Lake Chauncy, where the exercises were 
to take place. The Committee had arranged seats for a 
thousand persons. A large Yale tent and a canopy, pro- 
cured from Boston, afforded protection from the burning 
sun. Small tents, erected for the different committees 
and for private gatherings, gave the grounds a martial 
look. The Pavilion — marked for the occasion " Cen- 
tennial House — Free to All — Town of Westborough, 
Proprietor" — was in charge of the Committee on Hospi- 



. THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 339 

talities and Supplies, and refreshments were served to all 
who came. 

The exercises began soon after the arrival of the proces- 
sion. The members of the Continental Congress, repre- 
sented by members of the Young Men's Debating Society, 
marched with stately tread to their seats on the platform. 
After remarks by several speakers, the Declaration of 
Independence was produced and signed. Richard Mon- 
tague then stepped forward, and distinctly and impres- 
sively read the document to the audience. The choir, 
under the direction of S. Dexter Fay, then sang " The 
Star-spangled Banner," the audience joining in the chorus. 
After prayer by the Rev. Z. A. Mudge, pastor of the 
Methodist Church, the following hymn, written for the 
occasion by the Rev. B. A. Greene, pastor of the Baptist 
Church, was sung to the tune of the " Missionary Chant." 

A hundred years, and still doth stand 

Our fair Republic, through whose frame 
A life tides on, as strong, as grand, 

As any of historic fame. 

Our God, our fathers' God, to Thee 

A nation lifts her voice of praise; 
Thy hand, throughout the century, 

Hath filled with blessings all our days. 

As in the past, our growth thine eye 

Hath watched, frowned on our wrong, our right 

Approved, so in this century 
Begun send thou dark or light ; 

Keep back tyrannic power from rule 

Throughout our country's wide extent ; 
In state and church, in mart and school, 

Let there be righteous government ; 

Give freedom home in every State ; 

Make every hearthstone virtue's shrine ; 
Let not again war desolate, 

But peace with golden fruitage shine. 



340 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Then hail this glad Centennial day ; 

From all our hearts let incense rise ; 
All praise our God in joyful lay, — 

Yea, with our chorus rend the skies. 

The historical oration was then delivered by the Rev. 
H. P. De Forest, pastor of the Evangelical Church. He 
reviewed the history of the town, with special reference 
to its share in the Revolutionary War. The pavilion was 
crowded during the hour and a half occupied by the 
delivery of the oration, and the close attention of the 
hearers attested its excellence. 

After an intermission of an hour, during which the 
accommodations of the " Centennial House " were severely 
taxed, the audience reassembled for the remaining exer- 
cises. Melvin H. Walker, of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments, called the assembly to order. Several songs, under 
the direction of S. Dexter Fay, were rendered by a chorus 
of fifty children. 

Then came the " toasts and responses," interspersed 
with music by the band. Sherman Converse was toast- 
master. The toasts, which called forth the wit and elo- 
quence of local orators, were as follows : — 

The first sentiment: 

"The day we celebrate, the one hundredth anniversary of our 
nation's birth. May she live to see the centennial of centuries cele- 
brated by a nation of freemen." 

Response by the Rev. C. W. Emerson, pastor of the 
Unitarian Church. 

The second sentiment: 

" The Declaration of Independence, — the death-knell of mon- 
archies, and the herald of republics." 

Response by Frank S. Adams. 





't4foa<cd 7. fCS&st/yi&r — 



THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 341 

The third sentiment : 

" The nation our fathers gave us, and for which their sons have 
died. May the dangers which threaten from ignorance, extrava- 
gance, fraud, and corruption pass away, and education, economy, 
honesty, and integrity continue the bulwarks of its liberties." 

Response by the Rev. B. A. Greene. 

The fourth sentiment: 

"Uncle Sam's Wedding March." 

Response by the Band, — playing "Yankee Doodle." 

The fifth sentiment : 

" Our adopted fellow-citizens." 

Response by the Rev. Patrick Egan, pastor of St. Luke's 
Church. 

The sixth sentiment : 

" Westborough, beautiful for situation. The record of the town 
fathers comes down to us through the generations untarnished. 
May her record in the centuries to come be the pride of all her 
citizens." 

Response by Dr. William Curtis. 

The seventh sentiment: 

" The soldiers in blue and the soldiers in gray. May the dis- 
cordant notes of war be lost amid the fading echoes of time, and 
the melodies of peace blend with the chiming of our national 
blessings, so that, united again in brotherly love, we may all 
bless the God of our fathers for preserving the Republic to these 
days of 1876." 

Response by Arthur G. Biscoe, Esq. 

The eighth sentiment : 

" Our centennial bird, — the American eagle." 
Response by Hiram L. Broaders. 



342 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

The ninth sentiment: 

" The Independent Press, — the conservator of political and 
religious freedom. While a terror to demagogues, it is to the 
pure in spirit the beacon-light of safety." 

Response by Charles H. Thurston, of the Westborough 
Chronotype, 

The tenth sentiment: 

" The fair daughters of Westborough. Judged by their patri- 
otism and devotion, worthy successors of our grandmothers of 
1776." 

Response by the Rev. Z. A. Mudge. 

The eleventh sentiment: 

" Our - firemen ; always ready, may they never be wanted for 
service." 

Response by George H. Raymond. 

The twelfth sentiment : 

" The sons and daughters of Westborough who have gone from 
the parental roof. May they never forget their native town." 

Response by Charles E. Raymond, of Boston. 

The thirteenth sentiment : 

"While rejoicing in the centennial glories of our educational 
institutions, let us not be unmindful of that mighty engine of self- 
culture, the village lyceum and debating society." 

Response by Louis E. Denfeld. 

The toasts and responses occupied two hours, after 
which came a series of athletic contests on land and water. 
There was a hurdle-race, a foot-race, a swimming-match, 
a double-shell race, and other contests in which the local 
athletes furnished much amusement and excitement. As 
darkness approached, the throng returned, tired and 



THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 343 

happy, to the village. When the sun went down, the 
bells again rang out in joyful peals of triumph, and the 
band, stationed in front of the Town Hall, played its 
most inspiring airs. After dark, an exhibition of fire- 
works from a knoll near the head of Summer Street 
brought to a close the most elaborate celebration in the 
history of Westborough. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1860-1890. 

GROWTH OF THE TOWN. — POPULATION. — AGRICULTURE 
AND MANUFACTURES. — WEALTH. 

THE growth of Westborough from a weak and strug- 
gling settlement on the outskirts of civilization to 
a thriving town with well-tilled farms and busy factories, 
has already been partially treated by Mr. De Forest in 
the earlier pages of our history. In bringing down to 
the present day, however, the record of its increase in 
population and wealth, and the development of its various 
industries, I shall trespass a little on his territory. 

Both before and since the beginning of the Civil War 
the growth of the town has been slow and steady. With 
the possible exception of the period from 1870 to 1875, 
when there was a gain of 1,540 inhabitants, — the figures 
jumping from 3,601 to 5,141, — there has been no sudden 
increase which may be regarded as a " boom." From 
1765 to 1800, the returns indicate a decrease in popu- 
lation from 1,110 to 922; but the methods of taking 
the census, and its importance, were not at that time 
so clearly understood, and the accuracy of the figures is 
questionable. From 1800 to 1834, when the Boston and 
Worcester Railroad was completed to Westborough, the 
increase in population was very slow. With the opening 
of railroad communication, however, the growth of the 
town was assured; and nearly every census since has 



STATISTICS OF POPULATION. 



345 



shown a healthy and substantial gain. The actual growth, 
in fact, has been more regular than the figures would in- 
dicate; for the great variation in the number of boys 
at the State Reform School (now the Lyman School) 
and the condition of local industries, go far toward 
accounting for any unusual change. Thus, the apparent 
decrease from 5,214 inhabitants in 1880 to 4,880 in 1885 
was due not so much to a diminution in the number of 
permanent residents as to the removal of boys from 
the Reform School and to a temporary depression in 
business. 

The following table shows the population of Westbor- 
ough at various periods : — 



STATISTICS OF POPULATION. 



Year. Population. 

1765 I,IIO 

I776 900 

1790 934 

1800 922 

1810 1,048 

1820 1,326 

1830 1,438 

1840 1,658 

i 8 So 2,371 



Year. Population. 

1855 3,°H 

i860 2,913 

1865 3,141 

1870 3)6oi 

1875 ...... 5,141 

1880 5,214 

1885 4,880 

1890 5,263 1 



The population has undergone a great change in the 
past forty years, accompanying the development of the 
town from a farming to a manufacturing community. 

1 This is the estimate of Supervisor Wadlin. The reader should bear 
in mind that the State census of 1885 was taken in May, and that the United 
States census of 1890 was taken in June. Had the latter been taken a 
month earlier, — before the busy season at the straw shops had ended, — 
the population would have been about four hundred more than the figures 
indicate. In 1S80 the Reform School contributed 235 to the population, 
in 1885, I2i, and in 1890 (the Lyman School) 229. The Westborough Insane 
Hospital, established in 1886, added 606 to the population of 1890. 



346 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Until the middle of the present century, the inhabitants 
were nearly all of native birth, — the descendants of set- 
tlers who came to this country between 1630 and 1675. 
The immigration of Irish and other foreign nationalities 
began about 1850; but as early as 1855 nearly one sixth 
of the population was of foreign birth. In 1885 the paren- 
tage of the people of Westborough, as compiled from 
the census, was as follows : — 

PARENTAGE. 

Total population of Westborough, May I, 1885 4,880 

Number both of whose parents were native 2,899 

Number both of whose parents were foreign I>7i6 

Number whose father was native and mother foreign . . 115 

Number whose father was foreign and mothor native . . 119 

Number with one or both parents unknown 31 

Number born of Irish parentage M44 

Of whom there were foreign born 426 

The remainder, native born 718 

Number born of British 1 parentage 282 

Of whom there were foreign born 210 

The remainder, native born 72 

Number of Canadian (French) parentage 163 

Of whom there were foreign born 76 

The remainder, native born 87 

Number born of other foreign parentage 127 

Of whom there were foreign born 56 

The remainder, native born 71 

The principal employments in which the people of 
Westborough have been engaged during the past thirty 
years are agriculture and the manufacture of boots and 
shoes, sleighs, and straw goods. 

The earliest, as we have already seen, and until recent 

1 Including England, Scotland, and all the British possessions except 
Canada. 



AGRICULTURE. 347 

years the prevailing, occupation was farming. The fer- 
tility of the rich meadow-lands around Chauncy Pond 
attracted the first settlers from Marlborough and Sud- 
bury. Year after year the hardy pioneers and their 
descendants wrestled with the wilderness, gradually clear- 
ing away the trees and preparing the soil for cultivation 
and pasturage. During the first century after the settle- 
ment of the town, farming was almost the only occupa- 
tion ; even the minister and the doctor could not depend 
wholly on their professions for support. The innumerable 
trades and occupations of modern times had not, as the 
saying is ; been specialized. The farmer was often his own 
blacksmith, his own carpenter, and his own shoemaker. 
His wife not only attended to the dairy and the kitchen, 
but knit socks, spun cloth, made clothing, and, in short, 
usurped the functions of half a dozen different trades. 
Occasionally some rare genius would devote more than 
ordinary attention to trading or to mechanical pursuits ; 
but farming was generally the basis of whatever prosperity 
he enjoyed. It was a hard occupation, but a healthful 
and a manly one. To the independent, outdoor life 
which it made necessary, the descendants of old New 
England stock owe much of their vigor of mind and body. 
The sturdy manhood which it developed, indeed, was of 
greater importance and value than its more material pro- 
ducts. The implements which the farmer could secure 
were at best rude and clumsy, the seasons were not always 
mild and favorable, and often he was exposed to severe 
hardships and privations. The results of his industry ap- 
pear in the well-cleared and well-cultivated farms of to-day, 
and in the comparative prosperity of his descendants ; but 
the immediate enjoyments which he secured from his labors, 
and the pecuniary value of his products, were very meagre. 



348 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



The earliest official source from which it is possible 
to judge of the nature and value of agricultural products 
is the Statistics of Industry in Massachusetts, compiled 
in 1837. It is a very unsatisfactory report, however, 
and regarding Westborough agriculture it merely states 
that there were one hundred and thirty-seven merino 
sheep, producing five hundred and fifty pounds of wool, 
valued at $275. Incomplete and almost worthless as these 
early statistics are, they indicate, in this case, at least, 
one change in the conditions of farm life. The transfer 
of the industry to other parts of the country has made 
sheep-raising only a tradition among the farmers of this 
section. Twenty years before these statistics were com- 
piled, the sheep in Westborough could have been counted 
by the hundred. One flock containing over two thou- 
sand, owned by Major John Fayerweather, grazed on the 
hills of the present Pollard farm. In 1845, however, the 
number of sheep reported was only thirty, and in 1885 
the census-taker found none. 

From the Statistics of Industry I have compiled the 
following table, showing the changes in farm property 
since 1845 : — 

Agricultural Property. 





1845. 


1855. 


1865. 


1875. 


1885. 


Number of farms, 






184 


155 


155 


Value of buildings, 






| $125,576 


$399,680 


$263,605 


Value of land, 






$553-043 


$402,735 


Milch cows, number, 




897 


885 


966 


1,055 


Heifers, 




170 


181 


193 


343 


Value of cows and heifers, 




$29,970 


$30,663 


§59,468 


$46,133 


Horses, number, 


196 


242 


276 


235 


239 


Value, 


$9,780 


$19,360 


$24,659 


$27,140 


$22,362 


Oxen and steers, number, 




228 


I5 1 


48 


29 


Value, 




$12,750 


$4,507 


$3,810 


$2,115 


Swine, number, 


272 


395 


404 


372 


494 


Value, 


$1,450 


33.9.SO 


$3,817 


$4,042 


$3,100 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



349 



The more important products, and their value, are 
shown in the following table : — 



Agricultural Products. 





1845. 


1855. 


1865. 


1875. 


1885. 


Milk produced, gallons, 


377,192 


193.736 1 


237,442 ' 


451.591 


521,268 


Value, 


$34,045 


$24,217 


$AO,l8l 


$76,696 


$67,574 


Butter, pounds, 


23,000 


20,779 


6,356 J 


9,037 


13.978 


Value, 


$4,140 


$5,195 


$2,753 


$3,280 


$4,438 


Indian corn, bushels, 


13,020 


16,800 


12,790 


8,6Si 


18,511 


Value, 


$9,109 


$16,800 


$19417 


$7,920 


$11,384 


Cereals (other than Indian 












corn), bushels, 


7.094 


6,973 


5.877 


1.505 


1,003 


Value, 


$3,237 


$5,129 


$6,363 


$1,109 


$846 


Hay, tons, 


2,303 


2,571 


3.3°5 


3.489 


3.093 


Value, 


$15,140 


$38,710 


•$65,148 


$63,9S7 


$53,503 


Potatoes, bushels, 


2^,000 


19,200 


16,159 


12,972 


14,460 


Value, 


$4,200 


$9,600 


$13,799 


$9,611 


$8,351 


Eggs, value, 






$773 x 


$2,089 


$3,920 


Other poultry products, 






$6321 


$779 


$1,349 



The rapid decrease in the number of oxen is perhaps 
the most noticeable feature of the first table. The number 
of cows, it will also be noticed, has only slightly increased, 
the increase from 1845 to 1885 being less than eighteen 
per centum. The quantity of milk produced, however, 
has increased thirty-eight per centum, — a rate which indi- 
cates a great improvement in the quality of stock, as well 
as better methods of keeping it. The tables are sugges- 
tive in other ways, and will enable the careful examiner 
to make many useful comparisons. 

For the present condition of agriculture in Westborough 
the census of 1885 furnishes much information. Of the 
one hundred and fifty-five farms reported, thirty were 
less than twenty acres in size ; forty-eight were between 
twenty and fifty; thirty-seven were between fifty and one 

1 Amount sold. 



350 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



hundred; thirty were between one hundred and one hun- 
dred and fifty ; three were between one hundred and fifty 
and two hundred ; three were between two hundred and 
three hundred ; and two were between three hundred and 
four hundred acres. The cultivated land on these farms 
is divided as follows : — 



2,763 acres used for hay . . . . 
" principal crops . 
" market gardens 
u nurseries . . 
" orchards . . 
" other purposes . 

Total, 4,205! acres 



'7i 
5 
212 

3i8$ 



value, 



The uncultivated land is divided as follows: — 

4,774!- acres for permanent pasture .... value, 
442 " additional unimproved 
63! " unimprovable . . . 
2,472! " for woodland . . . 

Total, 77531 acres 



$147,131 

42,518 

863 

200 

9,421 

10,668 

$210,801 



9108,073 

6,589 

i,3H 

78,958 

$194,934 



The number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits 
in 1885 was three hundred and fifty-five. One hundred 
and thirty-six of these owned farms, two hundred and two 
were laborers, and seventeen were not classified. The 
result of their labor appears in the following table, which 
gives in detail the agricultural products according to the 
census of 1885. 

Animal products (manure and hides) $19,568 

Boots (including " work on ") 3,024 pairs. 277 

Dairy products : — 

Butter (for sale, 9,165 lbs.; for use, 4,813 lbs.) . . . 4,438 

Milk 521,268 gals. 67,574 

Cheese (for use) 64 lbs. 6 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 35 1 

Food products : — 

Ice 4,799 tons. $2,489 

Vinegar (for sale, 5,139 gals. ; for use, 597 gals.) . . 778 

Other food products 216 

Greenhouse products 65 

Hothouse and hotbed products 21 

Liquors and beverages (cider and wine) 734 

Nursery products 2,540 

Poultry products : — 

Eggs 17,387 doz. 3,905 

Dressed poultry, etc 1,369 

Wood products : — 

Firewood (for use, 695 cords ; for sale, 508 cords) . . 4,188 

Other wood products (lumber, railroad sleepers, etc.) . 374 

Other products (hops, seeds, etc.) 45 

Cereals : — 

Indian corn 18,511 bush. 11,384 

Other cereals (oats, rye, pop-corn, etc.) 846 

Fruits, berries, and nuts : — 

Apples 10,494 bush. 4,003 

Strawberries 7,494 qts. . 895 

Other products 1,736 

Hay, straw, and fodder 69,948 

Meat : — 

Beef 25,596 lbs. 1,725 

Pork 38,608 lbs. 2,485 

Veal 13,863 lbs. 1,138 

Vegetables : — 

Potatoes 14,460 bush. 8,351 

Tomatoes 73,635 lbs. 1,334 

Carrots 27,199 heads 1,300 

Other vegetables 4,426 

Total products $218,508 

The production of milk, as the foregoing tables show, 
has been an important element in Westborough agriculture 

for the past fifty years. The farmers began to supply 
it for the Boston market only a few months after the 
opening of the railroad, in 1834. A man named Thurston, 
who lived in the southern part of the town, was the first to 



352 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

collect milk and send it to the city. He did a small busi- 
ness in a haphazard way, and after a year or two left town 
without paying his bills. It is worth noting, however, 
that from his disappearance until the fall of 1889 no West- 
borough farmer ever lost a cent through the failure of milk 
contractors. After Thurston's unsuccessful venture, Jason 
Chamberlain arranged to run a short freight car on the 
morning passenger train to Boston, in which milk from 
Westborough and Southborough was sent to the city. 
For a time the car was drawn to the present South- 
ville station by horses, so that Winchester's milk for the 
Quincy Market might be put on board before the pas- 
senger train came along. Rufus W. Whiting, who now 
lives in Framingham, also went into the business at an 
early day, but in 1839 sold out to George N. Fisher. Mr. 
Whiting was afterward in the business for many years ; 
and Mr. Fisher has continued in it ever since, receiving 
his milk, until a few months ago, from Westborough dai- 
ries. He now owns a route in Boston, but procures his 
supply from C. Brigham & Co. 

The Westborough Milk Company, which was organ- 
ized about 1840 by John A. Fayerweather, George Denny, 
Abijah Wood, Elmer Brigham, and Col. Josiah Brigham, 
did a large business. For twenty-five years, S. Deane 
Fisher was its agent in Westborough. About 1852, the 
company's business passed into the hands of George O. 
Brigham, who had been its Boston agent, and Daniel 
and Stephen F. Forbush. It was afterwards divided, 
and was eventually absorbed by C. Brigham & Co. The 
Boston Milk Company, which was formed soon after 
the Westborough Company, was composed of some half- 
dozen Boston milk-dealers, who had separate routes, but 
combined in bringing their milk to the city. Another 





-t/e/A^r+t^y 



AGRICULTURE. 353 

company was the Milk Producers' Association, which was 
organized in 1865 by farmers who were dissatisfied with 
the contractors' prices. For a few years it did considera- 
ble business. In 1866 it built the " Old Cheese Factory," 
as it was formerly called, now occupied by George E. 
Fitch & Co. for a beef refrigerator, and for a short time 
used its surplus milk for making butter and cheese. The 
enterprise was on a co-operative plan. It failed to be 
profitable, and in 1873 came to an end. 

The milk business, so far as Westborough is concerned, 
is now almost exclusively in the hands of C. Brigham & 
Co., though other dealers take a small quantity. This 
concern, which has the largest milk business of any com- 
pany in the world, amounting to more than a million 
dollars per year, was organized in 1859 by Cyrus Brig- 
ham, a native of Westborough, and Whittemore Rowell, 
for many years a resident. One car-load of milk per day 
was at first sufficient for their business; but it has now 
become so extensive, that the firm receives eight car-loads 
each day, amounting to ten thousand cans. About seven 
hundred cans are sent from Westborough. This quantity 
of milk, however, is not all provided by local dairies, for 
routes from Shrewsbury, Grafton, Upton, and Hopkinton 
help to fill the Westborough car. The greatest quantity 
of milk was sent about ten years ago, before Northborough 
had a separate car for producers in that section. Twenty- 
five hundred cans per day were then frequently supplied. 
The present daily supply, amounting to about seven hun- 
dred and fifty cans, comes from one hundred and fifty 
dairies, which contribute from one to thirty cans each. 
The contractors now take, at a somewhat lower price 
than when the supply was limited, all the milk which the 
farmers produce, using the surplus for butter and cheese. 



354 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

In the method of shipment and of distribution, too, the 
business has greatly changed during the last few years, 
and it is now managed on a systematic plan, in striking 
contrast with the old methods. The contractors insist 
upon a good quality of milk, condemning such as after 
a careful analysis falls below a certain standard. The 
prices vary from twenty-one to twenty-five cents per can 
in summer, and from twenty-seven to thirty-five cents in 
winter. For the past season the average has been twenty- 
seven cents per can. In years gone by, the prices have 
fluctuated considerably, at one time, about 1840, being as 
low as sixteen cents per can, and at another time as high 
as fifty cents. The farmers have often found fault with 
the prices offered, and have tried other ways for disposing 
of their milk. In 1885 they formed the Westborough 
Creamery Association, having a capital of $5,000, and 
two hundred and twelve stockholders, and erected the 
creamery on Fisher Street; but the venture proved un- 
profitable, and the farmers are once more sending the 
usual amount of milk to the Boston market. 

At the conclusion of this review of the agricultural in- 
terests of Westborough, it is interesting to note that the 
town, ranking sixty-fourth in population, stands fiftieth 
among the towns and cities of Massachusetts in the value 
of agricultural products. It is situated in a fertile part 
of Worcester County, which rivals Champlain in Illinois 
and Lancaster in Pennsylvania as the leading agricul- 
tural county in the United States. With a population 
of 244,039, farm property amounting to #39>353.7 2 5» 
and 847,280 acres devoted to agriculture, its fifty-seven 
towns, in 1885, raised agricultural products to the value 
of $9,385,744, the proportion of products to property 
being 23.85 per centum. 



MANUFACTURES. 



355 



The position of Westborough in the county appears 
in the following table, which shows the relative standing, 
according to the census of 1885, of the ten leading 
agricultural towns and cities : — 





Population. 


Cultivated 
land, acres. 


Total agri- 
cultural 
products. 


Total agricul- 
tural property. 


Percentage 
of products 
of property. 


Worcester, 


68,389 


7,i 14 


620,756 


2,677.579 


2315 


Fitchburg 


15.375 


3, 6 76 


294.558 


1,304,227 


22.58 


Barre, 


2,093 


6,398 


289,738 


1,016,642 


28.50 


Charlton, 


1,823 


6,189 


265,657 


1,096,400 


24.23 


Sterling, 


t,33* 


4,632 


229,860 


1,010,065 


22.76 


Harvard, 


1,184 


4,807 


229.533 


1,143,001 


20.08 


Southborough, 


2,100 


3-375 


220,904 


1.053,959 


20.96 


Westborough, 


4,880 


4,205 


218,508 


835,666 


26.15 


Grafton, 


4,498 


4,267 


2l8,022 


882,985 


24.69 


Spencer, 


8,247 


4,463 


215,658 


928,635 


23.22 



The agricultural interests of Westborough, as regards 
both the number of persons employed and the value of 
products, long since yielded the first place to manufac- 
tures. The latter had established a foothold early in the 
present century. During the Revolutionary War Eli 
Whitney, who afterward achieved renown by inventing 
the cotton-gin, did a small but profitable business making 
nails ; and even earlier than this, Gardner Parker, of " Par- 
ker's Folly" fame, was making clocks. About 181 5 a 
man named Corbett, who lived in the southern part of the 
town, near the present residence of James A. Parker, began 
to make axes. Lawson Harrington, who succeeded him 
in 183 1, continued the business until 1865. At Piccadilly 
Joshua Mellen and his son, Joshua N. Mellen, during the 
early part of the century carried on a similar occupation, 
— making hoes, axes, and scythe-snares. A brass-worker, 
Ezra Winslow by name, some sixty years ago made and 
repaired brass clocks in a little shop on Mount Pleasant. 



356 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Sleigh-making, which furnished work to carpenters and 
blacksmiths during the dull winter seasons, was an early 
occupation. The tanning of hides was a former industry. 
Isaac Davis, before the memory of men now living, had a 
tannery in the meadow south of Bela J. Stone's residence 
on the Northborough road. Another tannery, near the 
Witherby place, on West Main Street, was carried on by 
Jonas A. Stone from 1826 to 1854. The currying of 
leather also became an important business. From 1849 to 
1874 Austin Underwood had a currier's shop in the rear 
of Memorial Cemetery; but this industry, like tanning, has 
now disappeared. About 1830 — to go back a little — 
Nathan A. Fisher started a small and short-lived thread- 
factory at Wessonville, where steam-power was used for the 
first time in Westborough. Between 1833 and 1840 Tris- 
tram Libby, with two assistants, made piano movements, 
in Horatio Warren's old sleigh-shop on South Street, for 
Timothy Gilbert, of Boston, a somewhat famous manu- 
facturer. There were a few other small manufacturing 
ventures during the period at which we have glanced, but 
those already mentioned illustrate their nature and scope. 

The earliest event of much importance in the industrial 
development of Westborough was in 1828, when J. B. 
Kimball & Co. began to manufacture boots and shoes in 
a little shop near the residence of the late James M. Kim- 
ball on West Main Street. In 1832 they made goods to 
the value of $25,000; and Jonas Stone, who was the sec- 
ond to enter the business, did nearly half as much. Five 
years later, when the first statistics of industry were com- 
piled, the manufacturing interests of Westborough made 
a creditable showing. The making of boots and shoes 
employed four hundred persons, and the value of goods 
produced was $148,774.40. Leather was tanned to the 



STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURES. 



357 



value of $7,800. Three men were employed in making 
twenty-nine hundred and forty axes, which were valued at 
$2,870. Sleighs worth $3,840 were the result often men's 
labors. The other manufactured products reported were 
twelve hundred straw hats, valued at $2,800; chairs and 
cabinet-ware, valued at $1,500; bricks, valued at $1,160; 
harnesses, valued at $517; and forty ploughs, valued at 
$275. This was in 1837. The growth of the leading in- 
dustries from that year to 1885 is shown by the following 
table : — 

Statistics of Manufactures. 



Boots and shoes, 

pairs , 

Value 

Men employed 
Women " 
Capital invested 

Straw goods (hats 
and bonnets) .... 

Value 

Men employed 
Women " 
Capital invested 

Wagons & sleighs, 
Value 

Men employed. . 
Capital invested 

Hides, tanned and 

curried 

Value of leather 
Men employed. . 
Capital invested 



1837 



140,74s 

5148,774 

360 

214 



1,200 

52,8oo 



$3>S40 

10 

$3,000 



3,300 
$7,8oo 

3 
$800 



1845 



140,820 

$84699 

200 

75 



3,000 
$1,500 



SI "7 111 

$1,000 



1855 



1865 



597,000 357,000 
l2i,ooo'$450,683 
400 286 

58 

$40,000 



42,300 
&34,ooo 

17 

262 



1875 



5871,014 
481 

74 
5150,000 



1885 



$585,600 

355 

45 

$201,560 



$1,112,020 $1,013,212 
146I 197 

278 I 398 



,700 $337,000 



^15,000 $28,250 

20| 22 

$3,000 $17,775 



2,300 
#4,925'$ 1 29,000 

2 3 
$500 $2,500 



17,245 

$77.ooo 

27 

$S,ooo 



$73-900 

24 

$48,150 



The manufacture of boots and shoes has undergone 
great changes since J. B. Kimball & Co. started their little 
shop. The first step toward the modern industry had 
been taken in 1818, when Joseph Walker, a Hopkinton 



358 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

man, invented the process of pegging, instead of sewing, 
bottoms ; but for many years afterward all the work 
continued to be done by hand, and the processes were 
slow and toilsome. The cutting, crimping, and treeing 
employed the few men in the shop ; the bottoming, 
siding, and binding gave employment to many men and 
women outside. The small, narrow shops, still standing 
near many of the older farm-houses, are relics of the time 
when machinery was little used, and work was taken out 
by " teams." But the introduction of machinery, in 
nearly every department of the business, has now brought 
all the processes of manufacture under one roof. 

J. B. Kimball & Co. were among the first in adopting 
the new methods ; but in spite of constant improvements 
in machinery, their facilities failed to keep pace with the 
growing demand for their goods. Remaining but a short 
time in their original shop, they moved to another on the 
Witherby place, nearer the village, and soon afterward built 
a shop nearly opposite the Blake place. In 1836 their 
quarters had again become too small for their increasing 
business, and they erected a brick building, now known 
as Cobb's Block, at the corner of Main and Milk Streets. 
Here they continued to manufacture until i860, when the 
present Kimball factory — which had been erected in 
1848, and used for a box-factory by George Denny, and 
afterward for a chair-factory by R. G. Holmes — was 
fitted up for their use. In 1866 the building connected 
with the " old steam-mill " was erected, and the concern 
occupied the whole establishment until its failure in 1878. 
The firm of J. B. Kimball & Co. stood high in the esti- 
mation of the trade, and during its fifty years of manufac- 
turing in Westborough did a large business. It reached 
its maximum in 1868-69, when two hundred and fifty 



MANUFACTURES. 359 

hands were employed, and the daily product was thirty- 
six hundred pairs of boots and shoes. 

The second to enter the business in Westborough was 
Jonas Stone, who began to manufacture soon after J. B. 
Kimball & Co., in a small shop on Mount Pleasant. His 
brother, Thomas Stone, after manufacturing a short time 
in the David Nourse house on School Street, in 1839 built J 
a shop on Cross Street, now used for a tenement-house. 
Moses Newton, who with George B. Brigham occupied a 
building on the site of J. S. Nason & Co.'s grain-store, 
was an early manufacturer. The building, that was moved 
away to make room for Grand Army Block, on South 
Street, was occupied as a boot-shop before the war by 
Willard Bragg. His brother, Urial Bragg, manufactured 
in the " Old Arcade." Otis Newton was connected with 
the business for nearly forty years before his death in 
1870. From 1840 to i860 Daniel F. Newton did an ex- 
tensive business in the old shop on Cross Street. In more 
recent years J. H. Pierce, as well as his successors, Griggs 
& Jackson, manufactured in Smith's Block ; and George 
Forbes was engaged in manufacturing at various times 
between 1857 and 1880. An old factory at the corner of 
Cottage and Elm Streets was occupied by C. M. Holmes 
& Co. several years before its destruction by fire, April 15, 
1876. The factory which stood at the corner of Milk and 
Phillips Streets, originally built for a sleigh-shop in 1869, 
was occupied by Crain, Rising, & Co. from 1879 to 1881 ; 
and by George B. Brigham & Sons, and Smith, Brown, & 
Co. from 1882 until it was burned in 1886. In the old Kim- 
ball factory there have been several attempts at manufac- 
turing during the last ten years, but with doubtful success. 
Hunt & Kimball purchased the buildings and machinery 
when J. B. Kimball & Co. gave up business in 1879, and 



360 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

manufactured a short time for C B. Lancaster, of Boston. 
Frederick W. Kimball occupied the factory at different 
times in manufacturing for various parties; Fogg, Shaw, 
Thayer, & Co. were there from 1883 to 1885 ; H. A. Royce 
& Co. from 1885 to 1887; and Brooks & Wells from 1887 
to the fall of 1889. The shop, which is now owned by the 
Kimball Factory Association, has been unoccupied since 
the latter date. A stock company is just forming, how- 
ever, to resume manufacturing at this well-known site. 

At present there are two firms manufacturing boots and 
shoes in Westborough, — George B. Brigham & Sons, 
and Gould & Walker. The former had its origin in 
1858. The senior partner, George B. Brigham, was one of 
the first to enter the business in Westborough. In 1838 
he superintended Thomas Stone's factory, and from 1840 
to 1844 manufactured in company with Moses Newton. 
In 1850, having temporarily abandoned the business, he 
became superintendent of Daniel F. Newton's shop. After 
eight years' service in this position he bought out George 
Forbes, — who then occupied the old Union Block, — and 
has continued a leading manufacturer to the present time. 
He remained in Union Block four years, occupied the 
Cross Street factory two years, and since 1864 — with the 
exception of three years in the Milk Street factory and a 
year at Southville, while his factory was leased to Gould 
& Walker — the firms of which he has been the head 
have occupied the present factory on Cottage Street. It 
has meanwhile been enlarged to several times its original 
size. The junior members of the present firm are John L. 
and Horace E. Brigham, sons of the senior partner. The 
firm employs one hundred and fifty hands, and manufac- 
tures goods (twenty-four thousand cases) to the value of 
about $325,000 each year. 



MANUFACTURES. 36 1 

The other firm, Gould & Walker, occupies the new and 
commodious factory at the corner of Milk and Phillips 
Streets. It was organized in November, 1883, by William 
R. Gould and Melvin H. Walker, both of whom had pre- 
viously manufactured with George B. Brigham. From the 
fall of 1883 to February, 1887, when they moved to their 
present quarters, Gould & Walker occupied the Brigham 
factory on Cottage Street. In December, 1889, Mr. Gould, 
on account of failing health, withdrew from the firm, and 
M. V. Dunning, who had been salesman, became a partner. 
The firm employs three hundred hands. Its annual product 
is about thirty-five thousand cases, valued at $500,000. 

The manufacture of sleighs is another Westborough 
industry that began early in the century. The first to 
make them were Nathaniel Fisher, a painter, and Gardner 
Cloyes, Levi Bowman, Noyes Bryant, James Cochrane, 
Jonas Longley, and Corning Fairbanks, carpenters and 
wood-workers, who built houses in summer and sleighs in 
winter. It was customary, before the business became an 
independent industry, to make sleighs on a co-operative 
plan. The carpenter, after spending the early part of the 
winter in doing the wood-work, would send his lot of 
sleighs to the blacksmith for the shoes and braces. The 
blacksmith was entitled to a portion, generally two out of 
five, for his work and material; and the painter, to whom 
they were next sent for the finishing touches, would re- 
ceive another for his pay. The sleighs having in this way 
been completed, on the appearance of snow strings of six 
or eight, drawn by a single horse, would be sent to the 
various markets, — Boston, Providence, Worcester, Lowell, 
and other places. The number of sleighs made in 1832 
was four hundred, and their value was about $8,000. The 
average from 1870 to 1880 was over three thousand per 



362 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

year ; but at present, owing principally to the unfavorable 
seasons, the number is much less. For many years the 
quality was rather poor, but answered the demand for a 
plain, substantial, inexpensive sleigh. In recent years, 
however, it has greatly improved, and " Westborough 
sleighs," which bring from twenty to sixty dollars each, 
according to the style of finish and upholstering, now 
stand well in the market. 

The first persons to make a special business of sleigh- 
making were two brothers, Baxter and Daniel W. Forbes, 
who built a shop about fifty years ago in the forks of 
the road near the "No. 4" School-house. During their 
first year in business they made two hundred sleighs. 
In 1858 Albert J. Burnap and Edward E. Brigham, both 
of whom had been engaged in the business several years, 
became partners with the Forbes brothers, and the new 
firm of Burnap, Forbes, & Co. built the front part of 
the present shop on Summer Street. From 1865 to 1875 
Nahum Fisher and Daniel W. Forbes carried on the busi- 
ness under the firm name of Forbes & Fisher. The 
present firm is composed of Mr. Forbes and his son, 
Forrest W. Forbes, who manufacture under the name of 
D. W. Forbes & Son. They are said to be the oldest 
sleigh manufacturers in the United States. In ordinary 
seasons their product is about twelve hundred sleighs, 
which find a ready sale, mostly in the West. 

W. H. & F. Sibley, who make about three hundred 
sleighs per year, have occupied their present shop on 
Parkman Street since 1844. For many years they paid 
special attention to making and repairing wagons, and did 
very little sleigh-making until after the war. They now 
have a large jobbing business, and in addition to sleighs 
continue to make wagons. 



MANUFACTURES. 363 

At Piccadilly Corning Fairbanks, one of the earliest 
sleigh-makers, carried on the business until his death in 
1887. His son, Benjamin N. Fairbanks, succeeded him, 
and makes about one hundred and fifty sleighs per year. 

John O'Brien 2d, who has a shop in the rear of Guild's 
stable, has been engaged in sleigh-making since 1864, 
and makes about the same number as Mr. Fairbanks. 

Patrick Maguire, on Summer Street, began to make 
sleighs in 1883. He makes about one hundred per year. 

The individuals and firms who have in years past made 
sleighs in Westborough are numerous. In 1871 there 
were nine manufacturers. Bacon & Williams, who occupied 
the shop at the corner of Milk and Phillips Streets from 
1869 to 1873, made nine hundred and fifty sleighs, besides 
doing a large box business. W. H. & F. Sibley made 
two hundred and fifty, and the remaining firms between 
one hundred and one hundred and fifty each. Among 
the more prominent sleigh-makers not already mentioned 
have been Edward Spaulding, Joseph H. Fairbanks, Frank 
Brigham, and Wilder F. Brown. 

The manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, at present 
Westborough's most important industry, was established 
in 1863. The braiding of straw, however, and the sewing 
of hats from domestic braid were early and common oc- 
cupations for women and children. The winter rye was 
cut in June, the straw was scalded and cured, the part 
within the sheath was whitened by brimstone fumes, and 
after being split was ready for braiding. Country trades- 
men took the braid, and sometimes the home-made hats, 
in exchange for goods. There was a cash price and a 
straw price for their various commodities, — the former, 
of course, being somewhat lower than the latter. The im- 
portation of braid from China, Italy, and other countries 



364 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

long since put an end to the home production; and the 
invention of a machine for sewing braid, some. twenty 
years ago, gave the death-blow to another common house- 
hold industry, — the sewing of hats by hand. A Con- 
necticut inventor, named Baldwin, introduced the first 
machine ; and soon afterward Samuel S. Turner, a West- 
borough man, brought out the " American " straw sewing- 
machine, which, although now superseded like the others 
by the Wilcox & Gibbs, was used for several years. One 
of the machines now in use does the work of about thirty 
sewers under the old system. In other departments of the 
business, too, great improvements in the process of manu- 
facture have taken place. As in so many other industries, 
the result has been an enormous increase in the quantity of 
goods produced, and a great reduction in their cost. 

The industry, which was for a long time confined to 
this part of Massachusetts, began in the adjoining town 
of Upton as early as 1825. A large number of sewers 
were required ; and for many years before the business 
was established in Westborough, " stock-carts " brought 
braid from Knowlton's shop in Upton to be sewed into 
hats by women in this town. The manufacture was begun 
here in 1863 by Bates, Parker, & Co., who occupied an 
old boot-shop standing on the site, and forming part, of 
L. R. Bates's present factory. During the first season the 
firm employed twelve men and thirty girls in the shop, 
and two hundred and fifty sewers outside. In 1870 the 
junior partner, James E. Parker, withdrew from the firm, 
and the senior partner, L. R. Bates, manufactured alone 
until 1875. During the two following years Theodore B. 
Smart, at present a manufacturer at Stamford, Conn., was 
a partner, and from 1877 to 1885 Mr. Bates was again 
alone. From 1885 to 1888 the firm was Bates, Wightman, 



MANUFACTURES. 365 

& Beaman; and from July, 1888, to July, 1890, Mr. Bates, 
of the original firm, and Willard W. Beaman carried on the 
business under the name of Bates & Beaman. Mr. Bates 
now manufactures alone. His factory on South Street has 
undergone many alterations, having been enlarged in 1866, 
and afterward in 1875 and in 1876. Before the introduc- 
tion of machinery the business employed seven hundred 
sewers in Westborough and the neighboring towns. At 
present seventy operatives and machines much more than 
supply their place. One hundred and twenty-five hands 
are employed, and goods are manufactured to the value 
of about $125, coo each year. 

The second straw-shop was started in 1864. Chauncy 
Mitchell, who had previously done a small business mak- 
ing " Shaker" hoods, began to make straw hats in the old 
shop on Cross Street. A year later George N. Smalley 
became a partner. In 1866 the present Union Building 
on South Street was fitted up for another straw-factory, 
and occupied for two years by Snow & Fellows. In 
1870 A. J. Snow, who owned the shop, formed a partner- 
ship with Jeremiah Hewins, and the new firm continued 
to make straw goods until 1872. 

Mr. Mitchell became insolvent, and ceased to manufac- 
ture, in 1868. In that year Mr. Smalley had withdrawn 
from the firm, and after manufacturing a short time with 
Willard Comey, entered into partnership with Henry O. 
Bernard, a New York salesman. The new firm, under the 
name of H. O. Bernard & Co., began business in a shop on 
Cottage Street. It soon proved to be inadequate for their 
growing trade, and in the winter of 1870 the main building 
of H. O. Bernard's present factory was erected. During 
the following season the firm employed eighteen hundred 
hands, and their sales amounted to $600,000. In 1873 their 



366 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

factory, by the addition of wings, was enlarged to nearly 
double its former capacity; and in 1878 the brick building 
connected with the old factory was erected. Mr. Smalley 
withdrew from the firm in 1875, but had charge of the 
manufacturing for several years afterward. In October, 
1885, the concern was reorganized, and incorporated under 
the laws of New York as the H. O. Bernard Manufacturing 
Company. Its capital is $200,000. H. O. Bernard has 
been president of the company from the beginning. H. K. 
Taft was vice-president, and had charge of the manufac- 
turing, until his death in May, 1887. The present vice- 
president is Paul D. Bernard. F. W. Patterson is secretary 
and treasurer. The company, which has one of the 
largest and best-equipped straw-factories in the world, 
does a business of over a million dollars per year. It 
employs between eight and nine hundred hands. 

It will be remembered, from the statistics of 1837, that 
bricks were then manufactured in Westborough to the 
value of $1,160. They were made at the brick-yard now 
owned by Stephen A. Gilmore, which had just been started 
by Abijah Wood. Work was carried on at intervals until 
1869, when the yard was leased for the purpose of making 
brick to build Post-Office Block. The business has since 
been conducted more regularly by the Gilmores, who have 
made from one million and a half to two million bricks 
per year, and employed from twenty to thirty men. 

The box-factory and lumber-yard of C. Whitney & Co., 
where fifteen men are now employed, was started by Mr. 
Whitney in 1873. The first location was on the site of 
the Whitney House ; but in 1875 a box-shop was erected 
near the present one. Frank V. Bartlett and George L. 
Smith, who became members of the firm in 1883, have car- 
ried on the business since Mr. Whitney's death in 1889. 



MANUFACTURES. 367 

The firm handles each year three million feet of box 
boards, and a million feet of building lumber. 

The straw sewing-machine invented by S. S. Turner led, 
in 1869, to the incorporation of a company with capital of 
$300,000. Mr. Turner and Willard Comey were the West- 
borough men prominent in the enterprise. In 1871 the com- 
pany built the shop near the railroad at the head of Summer 
Street, and manufactured for a short time. The invention 
of a superior machine put an end to the business. 

An industry which still exists, but was formerly more 
flourishing, is the manufacture of trellises. Benjamin B. 
Nourse began the business about twenty-five years ago. 
His shop was over D. S. Dunlap & Son's present store. 
George K. White became a partner in 1866, and the firm 
of Nourse, White, & Co. continued the industry. In 1870, 
their business having outgrown the old shop, Mr. Nourse's 
present shop on Summer Street was erected. In 1871 the 
firm employed fifteen men. Their specialties were Nourse's 
Folding Plant Stand and Wardian Flower Cases, which in 
1870 were awarded high honor at the Cincinnati Indus- 
trial Exposition. The business is now carried on at Mr. 
Nourse's shop by P. A. Angier & Co. 

The manufacture of bicycles was begun in the spring of 
1889. The White Cycle Company, incorporated under 
the laws of Maine, with a capital of $150,000, has a large 
number of Westborough citizens among its stockholders. 
It has a new and excellent shop on Beach Street, where 
ninety men are now employed. The president of the com- 
pany, and inventor of the " Broncho " bicycle, is Frederick 
White. The other officers are Frank F. Denfeld, vice- 
president; George O. Brigham, treasurer; Frank E. Peck, 
secretary; Frederick White, Frank E. Peck, Frank F. Den- 
feld, Frank W. Forbes, Emerson Law, William A. Reed, 



368 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



and Murray V. Livingston, directors. At present the 
company's works are leased to Murray V. Livingston, of 
Boston. The " Broncho " is a chainless " safety " bicycle, 
and its ingenious construction has won high praise from 
both English and American wheelmen. 

Since December, 1889, the old sleigh-shop at the head 
of Summer Street has been converted into a factory for 
the manufacture of pianos. It is occupied by the Leicester 
Piano Company, which was incorporated under the laws of 
Michigan in 1880. Its capital stock is $150,000. The 
officers of the company are G. V. Leicester, president; 
W. W. Johnson, vice-president; J. A. Trowbridge, trea- 
surer ; and William J. Gray, secretary and assistant trea- 
surer. The business at present employs fifteen men. 

The total value of Westborough's manufactured prod- 
ucts in 1885 was $2,004,887. Ranking sixty-fourth among 
the towns and cities of Massachusetts in population, and 
fiftieth in the value of agricultural products, this town 
stood sixty-second in the value of manufactured goods. 
The following table shows its standing among the ten 
principal manufacturing towns and cities of Worcester 
County : — 





Number of 
Establish- 
ments. 


Amount of 
Capital 
invested. 


Value of 
Stock used. 


Value of 

Goods made 

and Work 

done. 


Number of 
Persons 
employed. 


Total 
Wages 
paid. 






$ 


$ 


$ 




$ 


Worcester 


772 


18,344,408 


15,016,756 


28,699,524 


18,454 


7,060,755 


Fitchburg 


202 


5.477,446 


3.658,502 


6,231,866 


3 396 


1,271,329 


Spencer 


84 


I,5 8 0.794 


2,422,788 


3,627,467 


2,234 


694,908 


Clinton 


93 


5.547. 145 


1. 949.7 1 3 


3,624,663 


3,308 


1,070,933 


Blackstone 


3 1 


2,052,565 


2,361,676 


3.422,522 


1,930 


690,700 


Webster 


5 2 


1,408,628 


2,122,413 


2,888,063 


I,7l8 


484,203 


Milford 


136 


i.i43,534 


1,213,693 


2,289,030 


1,882 


599,852 


Gardner 


68 


2,487,051 


914,005 


2,046,343 


2,009 


707.I45 


Westborough 


53 


874.635 


1.355-337 


2,004,887 


1,827 


474,345 


Southbridge 


74 2,61 5,056 


1,061,416 


1.968,107 


1,956 


626,655 





, $\,. G> OAkLc^ 



OCCUPATIONS. 



369 



This review of Westborough industries roughly indicates 
the occupations of the people. A more exact classification, 
given in the census of 1885, is as follows: — 



Population of Westborough, May i, 1885, — 4,880. 
Occupations. 



Males, 2,299. 

Clergymen : 12 

Merchants and Dealers 54 

Bookkeepers and Clerks 57 

Teamsters 23 

Steam Railroad Employees ... 17 

Farmers 1 36 

Farm Laborers 202 

Boot and Shoe makers 355 

Box-makers 22 

Carpenters 47 

Masons 19 

Painters 13 

Carriage-makers 17 

Sleigh-makers 18 

Blacksmiths 15 

Straw-workers 197 



Scholars and Students 464 

Retired 46 

At home 238 

Other occupations 347 

Females, 2,581. 

Teachers 27 

Housewives 931 

Housework 346 

Servants (in families) 103 

Boot and Shoe makers 45 

Dress-makers 6 

Milliners 8 

Straw-workers 398 

Scholars 395 

At home 240 

Other Occupations 82 



It is hardly possible to estimate the increase of wealth 
which has accompanied Westborough's industrial develop- 
ment. Throughout the world the last century has seen a 
marvellous improvement in the comforts of life ; and in 
this general advance, it is safe to say, the people of West- 
borough have enjoyed and performed their share. The 
town contains no persons of great wealth ; but there is, on 
the other hand, very little poverty. The diffusion of pros- 
perity is unusually uniform. Although this prosperity is 
beyond our means of measuring, the assessors' reports 
furnish some interesting and suggestive comparisons. At 
three different periods, for example, the residents paying 
the highest taxes, and the amounts they paid, were as 
follows : — 



370 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



In iSto. 



Charles Parkman $72.44 

Benjamin Fay, Jr 44.1 5 

Elijah Gleason 30.28 



Heirs of John Sanborn .... $2909 

Benjamin Fay 27.42 

Asahel Warren 25.55 



In i860. 



Daniel F. Newton $108.95 

Estate of George Denny. . . . 90.09 
Zebina Gleason §9-99 



Curtis Beeman $77-25 

J. W. Blake 75.89 

Timothy A. Smith 72-77 



H. O. Bernard M'f'g Co. . . . $944.36 
Mrs. Abbie Whitney, adm'x.. 761.84 
John A. Fayerweather 595-5° 



In 1890. 

Gould & Walker $518.10 

Hannah Spaulding 487.59 

Estate of William R. Gould, 482.86 



The amounts raised by taxation at these different peri- 
ods were as follows : — 

1830. 

State tax, #129 ; county tax, $269.82 ; highways, $600 ; schools, 
$600; support of poor, $900; contingencies, $275. Total, 
$2,773.82. 

i860. 

State tax, $350; county tax, $1,275.56; highways, $1,200; 
schools, $2,600; support of poor, $1,400; contingencies, $1,200; 
reducing town debt, $2,050 ; overlayings on taxes, $333.25. Total, 
$10,408.81. 

1890. 

State tax, $2,292.50; county tax, $1,885; highways, $3,500; 
schools, $12,500 ; support of poor, $3,700; contingencies, $1,000 ; 
reducing town debt, $3,000; overlayings on taxes, $636.51; ob- 
servance of Memorial Day, $150; interest of town debt, $1,950; 
cemeteries, $500 ; school-house sinking fund, $800 ; water sinking 
fund, $2,000; engine-house sinking fund, $1,040; fire department, 
$2,300; salaries of officers, $1,575 ; police, including night-watch, 
$850; interest in anticipation of taxes, $500; concrete sidewalks, 
$500 ; judgments against town, $2,300; lighting streets and town 
house, $2,500; new bridge, $1,080. Total, $46,479.01. 



POLLS AND PROPERTY. 



371 



The following table, compiled from the assessors' re- 
ports, indicates the changes in certain kinds of property, 
etc., since i860 : — 



Year. 


Number 
of Polls. 


Houses. 


Horses. 


Oxen. 


Cows. 


Rate of 
Taxation. 


Taxable 
Property. 


i860 
1865 
1870 
1875 
1880 
1885 
1890 


647 

735 
862 
1,169 
1,204 
1,202 
1,389 


447 
S»7 

658 
717 
786 
805 


322 
356 
465 
5M 
477 
510 


"* 9 6 
3° 


'887 

1,040 

998 

1,126 

971 
1,231 


$7.80 
16.15 
13.OO 
16.50 
13.OO 
14.20 
I5-70 


$I,2IO,022 
1,392,478 
1,916,041 
2,450,658 
2,357,183 
2,55 2 .487 
2,783,504 



CHAPTER V. 

1860-1890. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. — WILLOW-PARK SEMINARY. — PUBLIC 
LIBRARY. — POOR-FARM. — FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

THE evolution of the public schools from the district 
system to the well-organized graded schools of the 
present time has nearly all taken place during the past 
thirty years. The " three R's," which were deemed suffi- 
cient for the average man or woman a generation ago, 
have given place to a broader and more thorough educa- 
tional training. The old school-houses, with their rude 
benches and rough walls, are supplanted by well-built 
structures, heated, lighted, and ventilated after the most 
approved sanitary arrangements. The methods, too, have 
changed. The schoolmaster, with his birch and ferrule, 
is no longer the typical pedagogue; for the gentle 
" schoolma'm," prepared for her duties by special train- 
ing, has effectually usurped his place. Under the old 
system of school management the town annually chose 
its general school-committee, consisting usually of three 
persons, who examined and " approbated " the teachers, 
selected the text-books, and made periodical visits to the 
several schools. In each district the " prudential" com- 
mittee — usually one man, chosen by the voters of the dis- 
trict — had charge of the school so far as to provide it 



public schools. 373 

with fuel, and, with the approval of the town-committee, 
to select a teacher. The district system was hardly the 
most economical or the most valuable ; but it was not 
until the March meeting in 1867 that the "prudential" 
committee was abolished, and the general committee given 
complete authority over all the schools. The duty of car- 
ing for so many districts, however, soon proved burden- 
some, and in 1873, in accordance with the committee's 
frequent recommendations, the town voted to employ a 
superintendent. T. Dwight Biscoe, the first superintend- 
ent of schools, was appointed in March, 1873. He re- 
signed in September, 1874, and John E. Day, who had 
been for three years principal of the High School, took 
his place. On Mr. Day's resignation, in 1875, Henry 
Whittemore, who had succeeded him as principal of the 
High School, assumed the superintendence as well. He 
successfully performed the duties of both positions until, in 
the fall of 1883, he resigned, to become superintendent of 
schools at Waltham. James Burrier was his successor. 
Since the expiration of his term, November 30, 1885, Dr. 
Edwin B. Harvey, who has been prominently connected 
with the schools for more than twenty years, has performed 
the duties of superintendent. 

The present division of the town into eight districts has 
been only slightly changed since 1836. At that time one 
school, in the building now occupied by D. S. Dunlap & Son, 
accommodated all the pupils in the centre of the town. 
In i860, besides an ungraded High School established 
six years before, there were four " departments " in the 
" centre district," occupying the two school-houses on 
Grove Street. A grammar-school was established in 1865. 
In 1868 a new school-house — the fourth in the centre of 



374 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the town — was erected on High Street. It was burned, 
May II, 1872, and the present building was soon afterward 
erected on the site. During the same year a French roof 
was added to the older Grove Street school-house, and the 
High School building was considerably enlarged. The 
second school-house on School Street was erected in 1876, 
and the Phillips Street school-house in 1883. The latter 
was built from plans made by Dr. Harvey, the chairman 
of the school-committee, who supervised the work of its 
construction. It cost about $11,000. The building is 
built of brick, is steam-heated, and contains accommoda- 
tions for four schools of fifty pupils each. It has a front 
entrance and halls for girls, and two side entrances and 
halls for boys. The school-rooms, which are all on the 
ground-floor, are large and well furnished. In the base- 
ment are two large exercise or play rooms, one for the 
boys, and one for the girls. The building is considered 
a model school-house. 

In 1 87 1 the town tried the experiment of supporting an 
evening school for the instruction of persons over fifteen 
years of age. It opened in March, and continued, three 
evenings a week, for ten weeks. Over fifty persons regis- 
tered as pupils, but the average attendance was less than 
twenty-five. The second term, which began in December, 
was discontinued after eighteen evenings. " The attend- 
ance was very irregular," the committee reported, " and a 
great majority of those who did attend, evidently came for 
purposes other than to study and to profit by the privi- 
leges of the school." 

The following table, which is compiled from the annual 
reports of the school-committee, shows the growth of the 
schools since i860: — 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



375 





1860 


1865 


1870 


1875 


1880 


1885 


1889 


Number of Children be- 
















tween ages of 5 and 15. 


490 


576 


681 


73° 


8 V 


845 


839 




12 


J 3 


15 


16 


18 


21 


20 


Number of Teachers .... 


12 


14 


16 


17 


20 


23 


23 


Number of Weeks taught, 
















in Common Schools . 


29 


36 


30 


32 


3 2 -3 6 


34 


37 


in Grammar School. . 




36 


39 


39 


39 


40 


40 




3i 


40 


39 


39 


39 


40 


40 


Appropriation for Schools 


$2,600 


$3,000 


$5.«35 


$7,275j$8,ooo 


$13,000 


$12,800 



The High School was established in 1854. At the 
March meeting in 1853 the town voted in its favor, and 
Draper Ruggles offered to give an acre of land upon 
which to erect a building. The town accepted the gift 
with due gratitude, and had the rear portion of the pres- 
ent High School-house ready for use the following year. 
The only facilities in the village for advanced instruction 
Up to this time had been afforded by private schools in 
the old "Armory" building — where Grand Army Block 
now stands — and in the Town Hall. The new school, 
which was ungraded, differed from the other public schools 
only in teaching higher branches. The number of pupils 
during the first term was fifty-nine. The studies pursued 
were " grammar, geography, book-keeping, mental phi- 
losophy, natural philosophy, chemistry, physiology, im- 
provement of the mind, rhetoric, astronomy, arithmetic, 
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, history, Latin, 
Greek, composition, and declamation, — in all which 
branches," the committee reported, " very good profi- 
ciency has been made." The man who taught these 
numerous studies, on a salary of $600 per year, was Silas 
C. Stone. It is pleasant to note that his salary was raised 
a hundred dollars in 1855. Mr. Stone remained until i86r, 
when he closed, in the words of the committee, " his long 



376 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and successful labors as principal." The two young men 
who came after him, each remaining a few months, failed 
to maintain good order; and in the winter of 1861 the 
Rev. Dr. Arnold, a member of the school-committee, took 
charge of the school with gratifying results. Andrew J. 
Lathrop — with a salary of $500 from the town and $100 
from private subscriptions — had charge of the school 
from the spring of 1862 until he obtained a more lucra- 
tive position, in March, 1863. L. S. Burbank, E. P. Jack- 
son, and W. J. Holland each occupied the position for two 
or three years. In 1871 John E. Day became principal at 
a salary of $1200 per year, and retained the position until 
he became superintendent of schools in 1874. 

During 1869 and 1870 the High School underwent a 
great change. " From an ungraded school of less than 
thirty scholars, irregular in attendance, not adhering to- 
gether in classes," said the committee in their report for 
1 87 1, " it has become a school of nearly fifty pupils, organ- 
ized into classes or forms, pursuing a prescribed course of 
study, either English or classical, possessed of scholarly 
ambition, and occupying the time and skill of two liberally 
educated teachers, — in a word, it has been wrought into 
a High School that will compare favorably with other 
schools of corresponding grade in this Commonwealth." 
The first class graduated, containing three members, was 
in 1872. In 1874 Henry Whittemore, who remained at 
the head of the school for nine years, succeeded Mr. Day 
as principal. Miss Jennie J. Robinson, who had been an 
assistant-teacher, after his resignation had charge of the 
school for a short time. In December, 1883, James Bur- 
ner was elected to the principalship. E. H. McLachlin 
succeeded him in 1884, and in 1889 resigned to become 
principal of the Brattleborough (Vt.) High School. The 



X 

m 

x 
o 

X 

in 
o 
X 
o 
o 
r 




PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 377 

present principal is A. W. Thayer. There are two assist- 
ant-teachers. The whole number of pupils during the past 
year (1889) has been sixty-eight. Twenty-seven were in 
the English department, and forty-one in the classical. 

The number of graduates of the High School from 
1872 to the present time is one hundred and sixty-two, — 
eighty-seven young women, and seventy-five young men. 
The number graduated at the school, however, is no test 
of its usefulness, for hundreds who have not completed the 
course have enjoyed its benefits for a longer or shorter 
time. More than half of the graduates have continued 
their education at higher institutions. Twenty-seven have 
graduated from college, — eleven from Amherst, seven 
from Brown, five from Wellesley, two from Harvard, one 
from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and one from 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst. 

Among the private schools in Westborough, the two 
which were at Wessonville — Wessonville Seminary and 
Willow-Park Seminary — have been the most prominent. 
The former, a day and boarding school, with about forty 
pupils, was established in Captain Wesson's old tavern 
soon after 1840. A school under the same manage- 
ment — the Westborough School Association — had pre- 
viously been maintained in the village. The seminary 
at Wessonville lasted about twelve years. In 1852 Dr. 
Butler Wilmarth and Dr. J. H. Hero purchased the 
old tavern and converted it into an institution for the 
treatment of chronic diseases. Dr. Wilmarth was killed 
soon afterward in a railroad accident, but Dr. Hero con- 
tinued to carry on the establishment. Among the numer- 
ous improvements which he made was the filling of a 
swampy triangle south of the building, where he planted 
a heart-shaped grove of willow and maple trees. An icy 



378 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

season some fifteen years later destroyed the willows ; but 
the name of "Willow Park" still clings to the locality. 
Besides the usual hydropathic treatment which marked 
the institution as a " water cure," Dr. Hero employed 
other agents, — such as electricity, Swedish movements, 
oxygenized air, light gymnastics, and finally the Turkish, 
or hot-air baths, — by which many forms of chronic dis- 
ease were treated with marked success. In 1866 and 1867 
further changes and extensions in the buildings were made, 
and in the fall of 1867 Dr. Hero opened the Willow-Park 
Seminary, — an institution for both the physical and men- 
tal training of young women. Young men were not ad- 
mitted until 1872. The first principal was Prof. Albert 
B. Watkins, the present vice-president of the New York 
State Board of Regents (New York University). One who 
was familiar with the institution both as pupil and instructor 
writes as follows : — 

" The one main idea of the founder was to combine physical 
with mental culture, — metis sana in corpore sano ; and the 
beneficial results of such a system of education were exemplified 
in a wonderful manner. Very many students of delicate constitu- 
tion, who had been utterly unable to remain long at school else- 
where, were always in attendance at Willow-Park Seminary ; and 
there was not one of them who did not improve rapidly in health, 
while doing thorough work in the class-room. The means em- 
ployed (together with plain wholesome food) were Dr. Dio Lewis's 
system of light gymnastics and the Turkish bath. The physical 
exercises and the health department were under the personal 
supervision of Dr. Hero, whose previous experience of nearly 
twenty years as a practitioner and proprietor of a health institu- 
tion at Athol, and of the Willow-Park Cure, made him eminently 
qualified to render invaluable service in a school of this kind. 
Frequent talks upon hygiene were given, and ' right living ' was 
a duty ever as urgently enjoined as correct speaking and clear 
reasoning." 



PUBLIC LIBRARY. 379 

The school grew rapidly, and in the course of a few 
years a private dwelling near by was taken for extra 
dormitories. The usual number of students was about 
thirty-five ; the total number of names on the rolls was 
about four hundred and fifty. Many of the pupils came 
from distant parts of the country. The hard times follow- 
ing the crisis of 1873, which seriously affected all private 
schools not well endowed, made it necessary to close the 
institution in 1876. 

Next to the schools in educational value comes the 
public library. The nucleus of the present collection of 
books, as Mr. De Forest has already shown, 1 came into 
the possession of the town in 1857. The first board of 
trustees consisted of the Rev. Luther H. Sheldon, the Rev. 
William H. Walker, and Samuel M. Griggs. They re- 
ported in the spring of 1858 that the number of books 
catalogued was three hundred and seventy-five, but that 
many, which " were found to be worthless, from their 
peculiar character and antiquity," were packed away in 
boxes. In 1864 Miss Jane S. Beeton, who retained the 
position for twenty-five years, was appointed librarian. 
The library remained in the rear of the old Parkman Store 
until 1868, when it was removed to a room in the Town 
Hall. In 1879 the town received from a former resident, 
William R. Warner, of Fall River, the gift of one hundred 
and seventeen volumes. In 1880 the library was closed for 
three months, and a new catalogue was prepared. The fol- 
lowing year saw the addition of a reference department and 
reading-room. In 1888 Miss Clara S. Blake was appointed 
assistant-librarian, and on Miss Beeton's resignation in 
1889 became her successor. The second librarian is Miss 
Mattie J. Eastman. The library was formerly open only 

1 See p. 227. 



380 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons and evenings, but 
is now open daily from one o'clock to half-past eight. It 
has increased in usefulness very fast. In 1859 the number 
of volumes was reported as four hundred and ninety-six, 
and the number taken out during the year preceding was 
thirty-six hundred. In 1889 the number of volumes was 
reported as eight thousand one hundred and sixty-five, and 
the number taken out was over twenty-three thousand. 
For many years the town has appropriated the income of 
the " dog fund " — a sum of three or four hundred dollars 
— for the support of the library, and for the past few 
years there has been an extra appropriation of five hun- 
dred dollars for salaries. A further income is expected 
from the estate of Dr. William Curtis, who at his death 
in 1887 not only made the town a legacy of $1000 for 
constructing a gate at Pine Grove Cemetery, but left the 
remainder of his property, after payment of debts and 
legacies, to trustees for the benefit of the public library. 
The sum, the income of which is to be expended for 
books and magazines, amounts to about $14,000. The 
trustees of the Curtis Fund are Louis E. Denfeld, Charles 
S. Henry, and Frank W. Forbes. 

The care of the poor caused the community, in its ear- 
lier days, much perplexity and expense. It was custom- 
ary here, as in other places, to intrust the paupers to the 
tender mercies of the man who would contract to board 
them at the lowest rate. Such a plan, in these days, would 
probably not result in high living or an attractive life. But 
in May, 1825, a committee, consisting of Lovett Peters, 
Joel Parker, Silas Wesson. Joshua Mellen, and Otis Brig- 
ham, who had been instructed by the town to report " the 
best way and means of supporting the poor," made the 
following statement : — 




^~ /^^A 



TOWN POOR. 381 

" In the year 18 19 this town granted 1700 dollars for the sup- 
port of their poor, and it was said that the sum was not sufficient. 
In 1820 we granted $1400. We had at that time something like 20 
permanent paupers, about one to every 65 inhabitants, — a greater 
proportion, perhaps, than any other town in the commonwealth 
can boast of; and we have a fair prospect of having as great a 
proportion again not long hence. It may be said that we are in 
no danger of having so great a number again at any one time. In 
answer to this, let any man who can remember this Town 30 years 
ago look over it now, carefully and candidly, and then ask himself 
whether the number of those who spend one half of their time in 
idleness, and the other half in drinking out what they earn in the 
one half, is not greatly increased ; whether he would see so many 
intemperate, idle, and ragged men, idle and ragged children, 
growing up, not only to be paupers, but mere pests of society, — 
for what good can rationally be expected to come from children 
who are brought up in idleness, where they see their parents daily 
drunk, and as often fighting, with every usual accompanying vice ? 
The prospect is a discouraging one. It must be discouraging and 
truly provoking to an industrious young man to see these idle 
drunkards, who are laying up nothing, to think and to know, in all 
human probability, that a part of his hard earnings must go to 
support such vile characters, — who, by the way, are not entitled 
to a very genteel support. 

" Another advantage [of a poor-farm], and not an inconsider- 
able one, is the law having made a poor-house a house of correc- 
tion for a certain description of persons, of which description we 
have too many. It is believed that if the town had a farm, and a 
few examples were made of certain characters, it would be a terror 
to evil-doers ; to such as say by their conduct, and sometimes in 
words, that when they cannot maintain themselves any longer 
Westborough must maintain them, and without work too. There 
have been repeated instances in this town of paupers [saying], 
' The town pays for my board, and I will not work except I have 
the benefit of it myself.' This is an error which needs to be 
corrected." 

The committee presented strong arguments in favor of 
a "pauper establishment." They cited several towns to 



382 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

show the probable saving in expense. " The Town of 
Worcester," says the report, " saved one half the first 
year. Doct. Lincoln states that they now save three 
quarters, — that is, it costs but one quarter as much now 
as when they were boarded in families." These, with 
other arguments, had their proper effect. At the March 
meeting, in 1825, the paupers, twelve in number, were 
" struck off," as usual, to Levi Bowman, who promised to 
support them at the rate of ninety-seven cents per week. 
At a meeting held May 2, however, the following action 
was taken : — 

"Voted, to purchase a farm for a Pauper establishment; also, 
voted, to choose a committee of seven, by ballot, to purchase a 
farm for the more comfortably and economically supporting the 
Poor of said town. The votes were called for by the moderator, 
and the following were chosen, viz. : Lovett Peters, Esqr., Capt. 
Silas Wesson, Joshua Mellen, Deacon Jonathan Forbes, Benjamin 
Fay, Jr., Capt. Daniel Chamberlain, and Jesse Woods. Voted, and 
authorized this committee to borrow money as much as may be 
necessary to pay for the said pauper establishment on the credit of 
the town of Westborough, to be paid by instalments." 

The farm of Capt. Daniel Chamberlain, on the Flanders 
road, was immediately purchased by the committee. Its 
area was one hundred and ninety-six acres. The price 
paid was $4,600. It remained the " town farm " until 
1 88 1, when the town voted to erect the present excel- 
lent house for its paupers on the Sandra farm, which had 
been purchased by the water commissioners in 1879. The 
old farm was sold for $6,750 to George P. Bingham, of 
Boston. 

The following table, which is compiled from the re- 
ports of the overseers of the poor, shows some interest- 
ing changes in their department during the past thirty 
years : — 



FIRE DEPARTMENT. 



383 



Year ending 


Number of 
Persons 
at Farm. 


Appropriations for 

Support of 

Poor. 


Appraised Value of 
Farm and Property. 


Feb. 23, 1S65 

Feb. 1, 1871 

Feb. 1, 1875 

Feb. 1, 1880 

Feb. 1, 1885 


*3 
16 

23 
12 

19 
17 
12 


Si, 400 

1,400 
1,000 
900 
6,000 
4,500 
3.500 


$7,276-64 

9,136.01 

11,230.00 

12,262.00 

".444-95 
10,057.90 
10,693.10 



From this table it will be seen that although the town 
has nearly doubled in population during the past thirty 
years, the number of paupers at the town-farm remains 
about the same. Some of the appropriation, of course, is 
spent in assisting the poor at their homes; but the increase 
in the amount of the annual appropriation is chiefly due to 
the improved accommodations granted to the inmates of 
the town farm. 

A fire department was formally organized in West- 
borough in the spring of 1842. About twelve years pre- 
viously, however, Capt. Charles Parkman, the leading 
tradesman of the town, had procured a small hand-engine, 
or "tub," and a fire company had been organized from 
the members of the old military company which had just 
disbanded. It was a private organization, and received 
no aid from the town. The machine was a small affair, 
with a few feet of leading hose, and the water which it 
threw was supplied by pails instead of by a suction-pipe. 
In 1832 the town, on being asked to build an engine-house 
for its protection, voted, as so frequently in later years, 
"to pass over the article." In November, 1834, an article, 
" to see if the town will take any measures to provide a 
fire-engine for the use of the town," shared the same fate ; 
but when the matter came up again in November, 1838, 



; ■ , LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUOH. 

the town not only chose s committee) consisting of Abijah 
Stone, in. u. mi I ibbey, and Jonas Longley, to ascertain 
the cost ot an engine and apparatus, but also voted to 
put at theii disposal, provided an equal amount could be 
raised by private subscription, the sum of two hundred 
dollars. The committee accordingly circulated a paper, 
and secured the signatures and promises oi sixty-six citi 
v- 1 1 . George Denny gave forty dollars, and the others 
from one dollai to twelve dollars each. At b town-meeting 
held March ti, 1839, Jonas Longley, in behalf of the com- 
mittee, submitted the following report: — 

" Youi committee • . • report they have received s subscrip- 
tion of Individuals amounting i>> $a88, which accompanies this 
report. They also received £aoo from town treasurer, as appro 
priated by the town. They have purchased an Engine & sp 
paratus, the whole cost ol it being $486.18, including ,\, foi 
freight on Railroad, which was .1 ;; ||( to the fire department of 
Westborough." 

The engine was a Thayer " tub," and did its duty for 
about ten years. Gardner Cloyes was the first foreman 
of the company which manned it. The <>M "tub" was 
given to the Woods, who owned the mill at Woodville. 

In the winter of 1839 the Legislature passed m\ Act 
authorising towns to establish fire departments with en 
gineers. An effort was made to have Westborough take 
advantage o\ the privilege thus conferred, but the ma 
jority were against it. On March 1. 1842, however, the 
1 egj ilature passed an Act establishing a fire department in 
Westborough, which the voters at town-meeting, April 11, 
accepted. The selectmen appointed engineers, and Jonas 
Longley, who held the office for ten years, was chosen 
chief. A year after his election he made the following 
report to the selectmen : — 



j 8 5 

"■ 'j ,< .'••. 'J ' 

"'j 

'' ] dtetwat $6oS go 

It irai 

finally disgraced its*. 

'J }.: . - 
W. J ; ily ftCt f 

scene it wa& 

g in November ere had been an 

article ir. rant to see if the town v. .air, sell, 

with full power to act, to the ei de- 

partment, — George Denny, 'Jner 

r . . tijamtfl i Forbttfh f Anv;n Wan Jov;ph H. 

Fairban> Perrin, and Jonas. 

acted with : :'-;-. 

to sell the old mach A new one, with appa- 

ratus, was b' nan & C /- It was 

;nd-tub, known in after years as " Chauncy," and 
in use until six years ago. 
In March, i868, the bur *he Parkman Store ag 

showed the town that its facilities f yuuhtng fire* 

were inadequate. On April 1 3 following, a committee was 
chosen to investigate the subject of purchasing a new 
ne< It consisted of Lyman Belknap, Josiah Jackson, 



386 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROIJGH. 

and Israel H. Bullard. At a later meeting, April 27, Wil- 
liam M. Child and Reuben Boynton were added to the 
committee. The town instructed them to buy a steamer, 
hose, and hook-and-ladder carriage, with apparatus ; to 
prepare suitable houses for the new equipment; and to 
build such reservoirs as seemed to them expedient. The 
committee accordingly purchased from Hunneman & Co. 
a steamer, — which was named in honor of the Chief En- 
gineer, Josiah Jackson, and still forms part of the depart- 
ment, — and had a ladder-carriage, costing, with ladders, 
hooks, axes, and the rest, about $240, built by W. H. 
& F. Sibley. In regard to reservoirs, the committee re- 
ported that there were six already built in different parts 
of the town, and recommended the construction of six 
more, — all of them to be built of brick and cemented, 
with a capacity of two hundred hogsheads each. Their 
recommendations were adopted by the town. 

The first annual report of the engineers of the fire de- 
partment was made in 187 1. In their second report, dated 
Feb. 1, 1872, they made the following statement regarding 
the condition of the department: — 

" The apparatus in active service at this date is as follows ; viz., 
one hand engine, one steamer, one hose-carriage, one hook-and- 
ladder truck, two hose-reels, one hundred and twenty -four (124) 
feet of ladders, and two thousand (2000) feet of hose, all in good 
condition. The department now organized consists of ninety-five 
(95) men, divided as follows : — 

"Chauncy Engine Co. No. 1, 42 men; Steamer Jackson No. 2, 
20 men; Hook and Ladder No. 1, 17 men; Hose-Carriage, 1 
man; Fire Police, 10 men; Engineers, 5 men : total, 95 men. 

" In connection with the above is the Young America Bucket 
Company (an independent company), consisting of twenty mem- 
bers, with fifty feet of ladders and twenty-four buckets, with suit- 
able truck for carrying the same ; this company are always on the 



FIRE DEPARTMENT. 387 

alert, and at the first sound of the alarm are at their post, ready 
and willing to render all the assistance in their power." 

The efficiency of the fire department was increased in 
1879 by the introduction of Sandra water. The head, 
one hundred and thirty-eight feet, gives sufficient force to 
throw a dozen streams on the roof of any building about 
the Square. Hydrants, now numbering seventy-nine, were 
set in various parts of the town, and a hose company, 
with a new carriage named after Dr. William Curtis, was 
added to the fire department. In 1S86 the town adopted 
an electric fire-alarm, with box at the corner of Main and 
South Streets, and strikers on the bells of the Baptist and 
Congregational Churches. The new truck of the Rescue 
Hook and Ladder Company was purchased, at a cost of 
$800, in 1887. In 1888, after many years of urging, the 
town voted to build an engine-house. An appropriation 
of $13,000 was made, and a committee was chosen, con- 
sisting of the engineers, — Henry L. Chase, George T. 
Fayerweather, James McDonald, Fred J. Taylor, and 
Hazon Leighton, — with Anson Warren, George O. Brig- 
ham, and William T. Forbes. The Maynard place, at the 
corner of Milk and Grove Streets, was purchased as the 
site, and the new engine-house was ready for public in- 
spection in January, 1889. The ChroJiotype gave the fol- 
lowing detailed description of the new structure: — 

" The building is of brick, with granite trimmings and slated hip- 
roof, and bears in granite figures ' 1888 ' upon its front. It is a 
handsome and imposing-looking building on its exterior, and the 
interior is also handsome, roomy, and convenient. The building is 
45 X 50 feet, with four front doors nine feet wide, and eleven and 
one half feet high, through which to pass with the machines. There 
is a side door of smaller dimensions for daily use. The lower story 
has but one room, twelve feet high, and it is sheathed in ash to the 



388 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

height of six feet, with walls above the sheathing in hard finish. 
This room will contain all the apparatus of the department, — a 
steam fire-engine, hook-and-ladder carriage, hose-carriages, etc. It 
has six large windows, 4X7 feet, and windows in all the doors. In 
the left-hand rear corner a long sink offers an opportunity for the 
1 boys ' to ' wash up,' and a rear door opens into the tower, where 
a well, four feet in diameter and as many feet deep, is for washing 
hose ; and above it the tower runs up to a height of fifty-five feet. 
Double stairs by the centre of the rear wall lead up to a landing 
and a turn to ascend several more steps to the second story, where 
in the centre is the upper hall, 10 X 25 feet, with doors leading 
into the engineer's room, 10 X 12 feet, a front room at the end of 
the hall, two corner front rooms, 17^ X 18 feet, two rooms in their 
rear of the same size, and the rear rooms are a store room, 8X15 
feet, and a bath-room, 8x15. The bath-room has a nice tub, 
set-bowl, etc., and a chest of drawers, and presents a very attractive 
appearance. The rooms in this story are ten feet high, finished in 
ash, and the walls partially sheathed, as in the room below. There 
are transoms over all the doors. The cellar and the wide side- 
walks are concreted, and show the remarkably good work for which 
the Westborough concreters have acquired an enviable reputation. 
Outside and inside doors lead to the cellar. All the rooms are 
well lighted. Picture mouldings now adorn the walls, but the fur- 
niture and pictures will not be in position until the first of next 
week. The building is heated by the Spence hot-water system, — 
the lower room being piped, and the upper rooms having radiators. 
The supply of hot and cold water will be ample at all times for 
cleanliness and neatness to prevail at these headquarters for our 
ready and gallant firemen." 

In 1889 members of the fire department organized 
the Firemen's Relief Association, having for its object 
" the relief, care, and assistance " of its sick and disabled 
members. 

The principal fires since 1870, the number of alarms 
each year, the losses, etc., are shown in the following 
table. It is compiled from the reports of the engineers 
of the fire department: — 



FIRE DEPARTMENT. 



;8q 



Year. 


No.of 
Alarms. 


1870 
1871 
1872 


5 
9 
8 


1873 


8 


1874 


6 


1875 
1876 


8 

8 


1877 


10 


1878 

1879 
18S0 


4 
5 
2 


1881 


8 


1882 


7 


1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 


9 

4 

11 

9 


1887 
1888 


6 
9 


1889 


14 



Total Loss. 



Principal Fires. 1 



Small. 

£40,000 
42,000 

4,000 

1,000 
44,250 

2.SOO 

2,050 

Small. 
1,000 
4,250 
1,450 
3.300 
400 

93° 

42,525 

10,100 

1,900 

10,500 



April 14, Union Block 

May 11, High Street School-house 

Feb. 8, Dwelling of J. Marrotte, Ch's. St. 
June 17, Central Block, Eagle Block, 

Protective Union Store 

May 3, " No 4 " School-house 

June 3, Reuben Boynton's Barn 

A pril 15, C. M. Holmes's Factory 

Aug. 2, J. Prescott's Barn 

April 24, Nourse Place 

April 29, G. B. Brigham's Farm-house . . 
Jan. 24, J. Prescott's Barn 

May 21, Fisher's Mill 

April 17, C. D. Cobb & Co.'s Grain Store. 

March 22, C. Fairbanks's Box-factory. . . 



April 5, Milk St. Boot-factory and Cath- 
olic Church 

Sept. 28, A. Robinson's House and Barn. 



Feb. 23, John Dolan's House and Barn. 
June 10, L. R. Bates's Straw-shop 



Loss. 



$30,000 
5,000 
i,5°° 

40,000 
1,500 
2,500 

40,000 
3,000 
1,600 
1,200 
2,000 

1,000 
2,850 

1,500 



42,000 
10,000 

3,900 
4.225 



The following is a list of the chief engineers of the fire 
department since 1870: — 

Urial Montague 1870-73 

William M. Blake 1873-75 

George T. Fayerweather .... 1875-77 

Bowers C. Hathaway 1877-79 

Charles E. Smith 1879-80 

Israel H. Billiard 1880-81 

Bowers C. Hathaway 1881-82 

Charles E. Smith 1882-83 

David B. Faulkner ...... 1883-84 

George T. Fayerweather .... 1884-86 

George L. Smith 1886-87 

Henry L. Chase 1887- 

1 This includes all fires where the loss was over f 1,000. 



390 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

The manual of the department at present is as follows : 

Chief Engineer i 

Assistant Engineers 4 

Chauncy Hose No. 1 15 

Jackson Steamer Co. No. 2 16 

William Curtis Hose Co. No. 2 .... 20 

Rescue Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1 . . 30 

Union Hose Co. No. 1 2 

Number of men 88 

Since 1881, the Rescue Hook and Ladder Company- 
has taken part in several racing contests. From October 
18, 1882, when it beat the "Excelsiors," of Leominster, 
to August 26, 1887, when it was beaten by the "J. N. 
Grouts," of Spencer, the Westborough company held the 
championship of the United States. 



CHAPTER VI. 

1860-1890. 

NEWSPAPERS. — POST-OFFICE. — BANKS. — DISTRICT 
COURT. — LYMAN SCHOOL. — INSANE HOSPITAL. 

THE first attempts at founding a local paper in West- 
borough have been described by Mr. De Forest in 
a previous chapter. 1 After the West borough Transcript 
was discontinued, in 1863, the community struggled along 
without a paper for over three years. Late in 1866 a print- 
ing-office — the first one in town — was established by 
W. A. Hemenway; and in September following, Charles 
H. Pierce, at present a well-known engineer in Providence, 
R. I., entered into partnership with him for the express 
purpose of publishing a local paper which should be 
printed, as well as edited, in Westborough. The firm, 
having procured a new outfit, on October 12, 1867, issued 
the first number of The Saturday Evening Chronotype and 
Weekly Review. It was a small, four-column quarto, with 
a heading so elaborate as to occupy nearly a third of the 
first page. There were four or five items of local news in 
the first issue, much general reading matter scattered in 
various departments, and a few small advertisements. The 
editorial announcement, as may be seen from the fol- 
lowing extract, contained an interesting glance at former 
journalistic efforts in Westborough: — 

1 See p. 228. 



392 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

" On the 13th day of October, 1S49, C. C. P. Moody, a well- 
known Boston printer who had formerly resided in this town, 
commenced the publication of a weekly quarter-sheet, called the 
Westboro' Messenger. It was unpretentious in style, as in size ; 
its make-up consisting mainly, of course, of local items and cor- 
respondence, with the usual display of 'original poetry' blossom 
buds. In fact, native talent improved its opportunity and secured 
thorough ventilation. But though nominally a Westboro' paper, 
the Messenger was edited and printed in the office of Mr. Moody, 
in Boston, and sent here for distribution. The local character of 
this enterprise was, therefore, in one sense, a pleasant fiction ; 
and necessarily so, since with only two fifths of our present popu- 
lation and wealth, and one fifteenth our present volume of manu- 
facturing business, no press could then be sustained here. After 
a brief trial, the enterprise proving less profitable to the publish- 
ers than entertaining to its patrons, it was abandoned. 

"In the month of August, 1855, a hirsute stranger made his 
appearance among us and announced his intention of showing 
how the thing ought to be done. Accordingly, on the first of 
September following he issued the first number of his paper, now 
known to fame as the Westboro' Sheaf. Coarse paper, battered 
type, shallow prose, and wishy-washy poetry entered largely into 
its composition. Its local character was only one remove less 
imaginary than that of its predecessor ; for though its editorial 
manager had his headquarters in town, the composition and press- 
work were done in Boston, on contract, by another printer. The 
Sheaf languished through a miserable existence of less than a year, 
with little comfort to itself, and of no use to its friends, and then 
shared the fate of the unfortunate being in the clown's pathetic 
narrative, who lay down on his back, opened his mouth, and let 
the wind all out of him. 

" In December, i860, Geo. Mills Joy, an erratic genius, came 
to our neighboring town of Marlboro', and in connection with 
Edwin Rice, of that town, commenced the newspaper publishing 
business on a novel plan. By suitable changes of heading and 
dates, and local correspondence from the several towns in the 
vicinity of Marlboro', they made the same matter answer for a 



NEWSPAPERS. 393 

local paper in each of these towns. We in this town were served 
with the Westboro 1 Transcript ; and the editor of this paper under- 
took the ' local ' work, and persevered (under difficulties, at times) 
for eighteen months, when other duties interfered and he retired. 
The publication of the Westborough edition continued about a year 
longer ; but it never after had a regular local editor, and the interest 
formerly felt in the paper gradually decreased until its suspension." 

The new paper established itself at once in popular 
favor, and became, as it has since remained, a prominent 
and useful institution of the town. With the exception 
of four weeks after its office was destroyed by fire at the 
burning of Union Block, April 14, 1872, its regular weekly 
publication has been uninterrupted. It has undergone, 
meanwhile, many changes and improvements. At pres- 
ent it is a nine-column folio, — frequently with a large 
supplement in addition. Its name has been altered to 
Westborough Chronotype. The paper remained under the 
editorial management of Mr. Pierce until November 1, 
1869, when he retired to accept the position of Assistant- 
Engineer on the Providence Water-Works. H. H. Stevens, 
who had previously bought the interest of Mr. Hemen- 
way, became sole publisher and editor, and so remained 
until his death, September 26, 1871. Dr. Edwin B. Harvey, 
while Mr. Stevens's estate was being settled, conducted 
the paper for about six months. Its office was destroyed 
by fire, April 14, 1872. On May 18 following, A. J. Pres- 
cott & Son, having bought the subscription list and good- 
will, began the publication of the paper in its present 
quarters. The senior partner of this firm was a woman. 
With her son, W." W. Prescott, she continued the busi- 
ness until May 1, 1874, when R. F. Holton and C. H. 
Thurston, the present proprietors, purchased the paper 



394 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and printing-office. Under their management the Chromo- 
type has improved and flourished. 

About two years ago there seemed to be room in West- 
borough for a second paper, and William D. McPherson, 
of South Framingham, established The Westborougli Trib- 
une. The first issue was dated November 29, 1888. The 
paper met at the outset with considerable encourage- 
ment, but from various causes — chiefly, perhaps, from 
the fact that it was printed out of town — interest in 
the enterprise declined. In the spring, Mr. McPherson 
gave up the personal oversight of the paper to Thomas 
Tresilian. The Union Publishing Company, however, — 
the owners of the Framingham Tribune, with which Mr. 
McPherson was connected, — remained the proprietors. 
In July, 1889, when the paper was on the verge of ruin, 
it was taken from their hands by some Westborougli men 
who considered it advantageous to the community to have 
the paper live. They soon placed it on a more profitable 
basis, and made efforts to secure the proper persons to 
manage it. In January, 1890, Ira M. Beaman and Albert 
E. Hoyt, young men from northern New York, bought 
the subscription-list and good-will. They established an 
excellent printing-office, and began a series of great im- 
provements in the paper. It was immediately enlarged 
from a seven-column folio to a six-column quarto, and 
all its interests were promoted with skill and energy. It 
is now issued from the office in Davenport's Block every 
Friday morning. 

The Westborough post-office was established March 6, 
181 1. Nathan Fisher was the first postmaster. The office, 
it is said, was in the house now occupied by Miss Hannah 
Peters, on South Street. The second postmaster, Captain 



post-office. 395 

Silas Wesson, who was appointed December 16, 1820, 
moved the office to his tavern at the corner of the turnpike 
and the road now known as Lyman Street, and subse- 
quently to his new tavern near Willow Park. He remained 
postmaster until July 23, 1833, when his barkeeper, Daniel 
Baird, succeeded him. The name of the office had been 
officially changed to " North Westborough " in 1832, and a 
few months later to " Wessonville." This was on account 
of the establishment of another post-office in the centre 
of the town. Mr. Baird remained postmaster at Wesson- 
ville until March 25, 1836; Onslow Peters served from that 
time to May 2J, 1836; and Captain Wesson, again be- 
coming postmaster, held the position from Mr. Peters's 
retirement until September 6, 1838. On that date — the 
building of the railroad through another part of the town 
having deprived the turnpike village of its importance — 
the post-office at Wessonville was discontinued. 

The first postmaster of the office in the centre after 
its re-establishment was Charles Parkman, the propri- 
etor of the village store. His appointment was dated 
March 16, 1832. Charles P. Jones succeeded him Octo- 
ber 18, 1834, and remained postmaster until August 31, 
1835. On that date Daniel Holbrook was appointed. 
Although he held the position but two months, it is 
likely that he moved the office — probably not a very 
difficult task — from the Parkman Store to his own store 
across the street. Charles B. Parkman, however, who 
was appointed October 30, 1835, doubtless had it back in 
its old quarters without delay. Milton M. Fisher, who 
was appointed April 23, 1838, and his successor, Wel- 
lington L. G. Hunt, who was appointed November 5, 1839, 
had the office in the present Cobb's Block, then known 



396 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

as the " Brick Block." Ethan Bullard succeeded Mr. Hunt 
December 30, 1847, and moved it back again to the old 
Parkman Store. Mr. Bullard's successor, appointed June 
2, 1849, was John A. Fayerweather. Mr. Fayerweather 
states that during his term the annual income of the 
office was between four and five hundred dollars. One 
mail in each direction arrived, and one departed, every 
morning. The boxes which were then used are now in 
the post-office at Southborough. In 1853 there was a 
change in the politics of the administration at Washing- 
ton, and Mr. Fayerweather gave place to Josiah A. Brig- 
ham, a staunch Democrat. The new postmaster moved 
the office to Corner Block (the site of the present Central 
Block), where it remained sixteen years. Josiah Childs 
succeeded Mr. Brigham April 22, 1861, and served until 
the appointment of Frank W. Bullard, April 22, 1869. 
Six weeks after his appointment Mr. Bullard moved the 
office across the street to the new block which had been 
erected on the site of the Parkman Store. The new struc- 
ture thus became " Post-Office Block," — a name that it 
has not yet had occasion to change. At this time the 
number of mails each day had increased to six, — three 
arriving, and three departing. Mr. Bullard, whose loss ot 
a leg in the Civil War gave him a title to the consider- 
ation of the authorities, held the office until after the 
election of President Cleveland. His successor, Dennis 
D. Dinan, was appointed March 29, 1886. Three years 
later, — March 7, 1889, — the Republican party having 
again triumphed, President Harrison restored Mr. Bullard 
to the office which he had held so long. 

The Westborough post-office is now rated in the third 
class. There are twenty-two mails each day, — eleven 




I W " **" 



( ^^^^<:^^^^^^^' 




BANKS. 397 

"in," and eleven "out." The postmaster's salary is $1,900. 
During the last fiscal year, ending June 30, 1890, the in- 
come of the office was over eight thousand dollars. 

There are two banks in Westborough, — the First Na- 
tional Bank and the Westborough Savings Bank. The 
former was chartered May 11, 1864. Its capital at the 
beginning was $100,000. It was afterwards increased to 
$150,000 for a few years, but is now at the original 
amount. John A. Fayerweather has been president since 
the bank was organized. Samuel M. Griggs was cashier 
two years, and since his retirement George O. Brigham 
has held the position. William A. Reed has been assis- 
tant-cashier during the last two years. The bank had 
rooms in the old Corner Block until the erection of Post- 
Office Block, in 1869. Its present quarters were taken 
at that time. 

The Savings Bank was incorporated February 9, 1869. 
Cyrus Fay was president until his death, in 1884; Edwin 
Bullard, the present president, was his successor. George 
O. Brigham has been treasurer from the beginning. The 
bank has done a large and growing business in a manner 
highly creditable to its managers. Its depositors last 
year numbered twenty-three hundred and thirteen. The 
following figures are from the Treasurer's Report for 
1889: — 

Amount of deposits, Jan. 1, 1889 $667,701.86 

" " received during the year . . . 179,391.12 

" " withdrawn 142,971.13 

" " Jan. 1, 1890 704,121.85 

Increase of " 36,419.99 

The First District Court of Eastern Worcester — which 
sits at Westborough Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 



398 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

and at Grafton Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays — was 
instituted by Act of the Legislature in 1872. It has juris- 
diction over the towns of Westborough, Grafton, North- 
borough, and Southborough. James W. White, of Grafton, 
was the first justice of the court. Mr. White died in Octo- 
ber, 1875, an d William T. Forbes, of Westborough, the 
present judge of probate for Worcester County, became 
his successor. On Mr. Forbes's resignation, in 1879, 
Dexter Newton, of Southborough, was appointed justice. 
He died in September, 1890, and was succeeded by Ed- 
ward C. Bates, of Westborough. For the past fifteen 
years there have been two special justices. Benjamin 
B. Nourse, of Westborough, who still holds the office, 
and Hubbard Willson, then of Southborough, were the 
first appointed. On Mr. Willson's resignation, in 1879, 
Luther K. Leland, of Grafton, became his successor. The 
judge's salary, when the court was instituted, was $800. 
It was cut down to $700 in 1879, but was afterwards re- 
stored to the original sum. It has since been increased 
to $1,000 per year. 

There are two State institutions in Westborough, — the 
Lyman School for Boys and the Westborough Insane 
Hospital. 

The Lyman School, which was known until four years 
ago as the State Reform School, was established — as Mr. 
De Forest has already stated — in 1846. 1 In that year the 
Legislature authorized a commission " to select and ob- 
tain, by gift or purchase," a site for a manual labor 
school for juvenile offenders, and authorized the Governor 
to draw his warrant for a sum not exceeding $10,000, to 
defray the expenses. This novel idea — that the State, as 

1 See p. 229. 



THE LYMAN SCHOOL. 399 

a body politic, should undertake the reformation, rather 
than merely the punishment, of youthful offenders — won 
the sympathy and support of many earnest and philan- 
thropic persons. Among them was the Hon. Theodore 
Lyman, of Brookline, who, deeming the appropriation in- 
sufficient for the object contemplated, gave $10,000 to- 
wards the general expenses. In the fall of 1846 the Board 
of Commissioners — which consisted of Alfred Dwight Fos- 
ter, Robert Rantoul, and Samuel H. Walley, Jr. — pur- 
chased, with General Lyman's gift, the Peters farm, on the 
north side of Lake Chauncy, in Westborough. In 1848 
General Lyman provided money for buying additional 
land, and also made another donation of $ro,coo. At his 
death, in 1849, ne left $50,000 for the institution, — making 
a total contribution of $72,000. So persistently had he 
enjoined secrecy, and so well had the secret been kept, 
that " it was only when he was beyond the reach of human 
flattery or praise that the friends of the institution were 
apprised to whose great heart and generous hand they 
were indebted for its success." 

The original building was erected, at a cost of $52,000, 
in 1848. It had accommodations for three hundred boys. 
At the end of the first year the inmates, widely differing in 
age and length of sentence, numbered three hundred and 
ten. The institution from the outset was overcrowded. In 
1852 the Legislature authorized an enlargement to accom- 
modate two hundred and fifty boys. The expense was 
$54,000. At the close of 1855 the number of inmates was 
five hundred and fifty-nine, and the average age twelve 
years and six months. The number remained about the 
same until 1859. In the summer of that year one of the 
inmates set fire to the institution, and it was partially 



400 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

destroyed. The loss was about $50,000. This event, un- 
fortunate as it seemed, had a material effect upon the char- 
acter of the institution. During the first half of the decade 
already sketched, according to the Report of the Trustees 
for 1876, "there was a school of three hundred boys, occu- 
pying a common yard and sitting at a common table ; in 
the second half, a school of twice the number, having two 
yards for play and two dining-rooms : but there was no 
classification of the boys according to character, and the 
system known as 'the congregate system' alone prevailed. 
But the fire furnished the opportunity, as the reformation 
of the boys had previously the demand, for a separation 
of the inmates into classes." In pursuance of this plan, 
the Legislature, following the urgent recommendations of 
Governor Banks, authorized the purchase of a ship, popu- 
larly known as " the school-ship," for the more hardened 
offenders. It also authorized the re-arrangement of a 
portion of the school into family groups of about thirty 
boys each, and reduced the maximum age of commit- 
ment to fourteen years. The new buildings were dedicated 
October 10, i860. 

In July, i860, fifty boys were transferred to the school- 
ship " Massachusetts." The courts sentenced the older 
offenders to the ship, and the average age of boys com- 
mitted to the Reform School was reduced to eleven years. 
In 1865 the State purchased another school-ship, larger 
than the " Massachusetts," and named it in honor of 
George M. Barnard, who contributed $5,000 towards its 
purchase. The school-ships, however, were sold after a 
few years, older boys were again sentenced to the Reform 
School, and in 1873 the average age of commitment had 
risen to fifteen years. The effect was disheartening. " It 



THE LYMAN SCHOOL. 401 

is now several years," said the Trustees in their Report for 
1873, "since the adoption of a policy by which the char- 
acter of the institution has been gradually changing, — by 
which it is losing its character as a Reform School for 
Boys and becoming a place of confinement for criminals." 
They protested vigorously against the evils arising from 
the contact of the older and more vicious with the younger 
boys, but with no other effect than the appropriation of 
$90,000 in 1875, and $25,000 in 1876, for the erection and 
furnishing of additional buildings. In 1884 the maximum 
age of commitment was reduced from seventeen to fifteen 
years. The number of boys, from this cause and on ac- 
count of the establishment of a reformatory at Concord, 
became smaller, and in April, 1885, — the Legislature 
having transferred the buildings for use as an insane hos- 
pital, — the school was moved to Willow Park. There 
were at this time about one hundred inmates. Their new 
home, beautifully situated on the southerly slope of a 
commanding hill, is unsurpassed as the site of a public 
institution. Here the State erected new buildings admi- 
rably adapted to the new conditions. The name of the 
school was changed to " The Lyman School for Boys." 
In their Report for 1887 the Trustees said: — 

" It is now two years since the old Reform School at West- 
borough was reorganized into the Lyman School and established 
in its present quarters. The reorganization consisted in more than 
a change in location. The old congregate system, with its rule of 
bolts and bars, was changed into the family system in open houses, 
and the age of admission limited at fifteen instead of seventeen, 
as previously. . . . The school now consists of a farm of ninety- 
nine acres, on which stand farm buildings and four houses, entirely 
apart from each other. A family, consisting of master, matron, teach- 
ers, laundress, and about twenty-five boys, live in each house. Boys 



402 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



of separate families are allowed to have no intercourse. They work 
when out of doors, each family under the supervision of its own mas- 
ter ; and each house has its own playground. The boys rise at five, 
have an hour in school from half-past five to half-past six, then break- 
fast, and work at housework, or on the farm, or in shops, from seven 
to half-past eleven. Dinner is at twelve. From one to half-past 
two is work again, then recreation for half an hour, and school 
from three to six ; after that, supper, recreation, and prayers, and 
bed-time at eight o'clock. In winter they get up at half-past five 
instead of five. Thus the division of the day is six hours for work, 
four for school, five for meals and recreation, and nine for sleep. 
The housework is done entirely by the boys, the officers doing lit- 
tle but supervise ; and the prevailing order and cleanliness, and the 
cheerful faces of the little workers, are always pleasant to see. The 
boys are as efficient in the laundry and sewing-rooms as in the 
kitchen. During the year, 108,778 pieces have been washed and 
ironed, and 15,646 garments have been made in the sewing-room, 
besides much mending. Eight or nine boys are usually employed 
in the inside work. They prefer it to out-door work, and consider 
it a place of honor. But no boys are kept at inside work for more 
than three months." 



In 1888, the Wilson farm was purchased, and the house 
was refitted for another family of boys. This estate, sit- 
uated on the main road from Westborough to North- 
borough, adjoined the Lyman School farm. Another 
building, for which the appropriation was $16,000, is now 
being erected. The number of boys at the institution, 
June 1, 1890, was one hundred and ninety-four; the 
number of officers, thirty-seven. 

The Superintendents have been as follows 
William R. Lincoln 



James M. Talcott . . 
William E. Starr . . 
Joseph A. Allen . . 
Orville K. Hutchinson 
Benjamin Evans . . 



1848-1853 
1853-1857 
1857-1861 
1861-1867 
1 867- 1 868 
1868-1873 



Allen G. Shepherd . 
Luther H. Sheldon 
Edmund T. Dooley 
Joseph A. Allen 
Henry E. Swan . . 
Theodore F. Chapin 



1873-1878 
1878-1880 
1880-1881 
1 881-1885 
i88?-i888 




ft. (S^Utc^t^f 072^4^ 



INSANE HOSPITAL. 



403 



The following Westborough men have served on the 
Board of Trustees : — 



Nahum Fisher . . . 


. 1847-1849 


Benjamin Boynton . . 


. 1862-1864 


George Denny . . . 


. 1847-1851 


Edwin B. Harvey . • 


• 1873-1878 


Daniel H. Forbes . . 


. 1851-1854 


Lyman Belknap . . . 


. 1878-1884 


John A. Fayerweather 


. 1856-1859 


Melvin H. Walker. . 


. 1884- 



The Westborough Insane Hospital, a homoeopathic in- 
stitution, occupies the former site of the Reform School. 
It was incorporated June 3, 1884. The Legislature directed 
the transfer of the farm, comprising about two hundred 
and seventy-five acres, and the remodelling of the build- 
ings. On September 9, 1884, the Governor appointed the 
following Board of Trustees : Charles R. Codman, Henry 
S. Russell, Lucius G. Pratt, Francis A. Dewson, Archi- 
bald H. Grimke, Phcebe J. Leonard, and Emily Talbot. 
The Trustees selected as Superintendent Dr. N. Emmons 
Paine, of Albany, N. Y., who had been four years assist- 
ant physician at the Middletown (N. Y.) Hospital, — the 
first homoeopathic hospital for the insane in the United 
States. For making the necessary additions to the in- 
stitution, the Legislature authorized the expenditure of 
$150,000; but the plans were afterwards changed, and in 
May, 1886, it made an additional appropriation of $180,000 
for completing and furnishing the buildings. The hospital 
was opened for the reception of patients December 1, 
1886, when it received about two hundred inmates from 
the over-crowded institutions at other places. Though 
designed for the accommodation of four hundred and five 
patients, there has been a large excess over that number 
since the beginning of 1889. At one time there were five 
hundred and seven inmates. The Report of Dr. Paine for 



404 



LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 



the year ending September 30, 1890, gives the following 
general statistics : — 



Patients in the Hospital, Sept. 30, 1889 

Admissions within the year 

Whole number of cases within the year 

Discharged within the year 

viz. : as recovered 

much improved 

improved 

unimproved 

Deaths 

Patients remaining Sept. 30, 1S90 

viz.: supported as State patients. . 
" town " 
" private " 
Number of patients in the year 

Daily average of patients 



Males. 


Females. 


196 


3°7 


*33 


177 


3 2 9 


484 


131 


174 


49 


55 


26 


50 


18 


29 


11 


14 


27 


26 


198 


310 


70 


88 


in 


198 


17 


24 


326 


474 


184.28 


290.41 



Total. 



503 
310 

813 

3°5 

104 

76 

47 

25 

53 
508 

158 

309 

41 

800 

474.69 



The present officers are N. Emmons Paine, M. D., super- 
intendent; George S. Adams, M. D., Edward H. Wiswall, 
M. D., George O. Welch, M. D., and Ellen L. Keith, M. D., 
assistant physicians ; Willard D. Tripp, steward. Frank 
W. Forbes, of Westborough, is treasurer. The monthly 
pay-roll contains upwards of one hundred and fifty names. 



CHAPTER VII. 

1860-1890. 

PROMINENT SOCIETIES. 

AMONG the institutions in Westborough are several 
societies which, on account of their age, size, or 
object, deserve some atttention in a history of the town. 
The number of benevolent, social, literary, and other 
organizations, considering the size of the place, is un- 
usually large. In the Annual Report of the Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor for 1880, where careful attention was 
given to the social condition of the various towns in 
the Commonwealth, Westborough, sharing the distinction 
with Milford, stood first in regard to social advantages 
among the towns of Worcester County; and among the 
two hundred and fifty-three towns and cities of the State 
which sent returns, it stood among the fifteen assigned 
to the first rank as " excellent." Since the publication 
of this Report a large number of societies with widely 
differing objects have been added to the list. 

The organization which for many years enjoyed the 
distinction of being the oldest, excepting, of course, the 
religious associations, was the Thief-detecting Society. It 
was formed March 6, 1839. On that date, as its records 
state, " a respectable number of the inhabitants of West- 
boro' met at the hotel of Dexter Brigham to take 
into consideration the importance of forming a society 



406 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

for the detection of thieves and the recovery of stolen 
property." The directors of the society were authorized 
to offer rewards ; and there was a " detecting, or pursu- 
ing, committee " to follow and capture thieves. Nahum 
Fisher was the first president, and Milton M. Fisher the 
first clerk. Before the days of the railroad and the tele- 
graph, when the country was thinly settled, the organi- 
zation was very serviceable in recovering stolen property; 
but the improved means of communication long since de- 
prived the society of its original usefulness. Its roll of 
membership contains one hundred and forty-four names. 
In 1887, making a praiseworthy effort to keep abreast 
of the times, it changed its name to " The Westborough 
Park Association," and instead of chasing thieves, made 
the purchase of a public-pleasure ground its object. The 
officers are as follows: President, Dr. Francis E.Corey; 
vice-president, M. Gilman Davis; clerk, William A. Reed; 
treasurer, Charles S. Henry; trustees, George O. Brigham, 
Edwin Bullard, and Alden L. Boynton. The society has 
about sixty members. The amount in its treasury is over 
four hundred dollars. 

A close second to the Thief-detecting Society in age 
was the Westborough Agricultural Society, the origin of 
which — in 1839 — has already been mentioned by Mr. 
De Forest. 1 Its founders, as the records declare, were 
" convinced that a society of agriculturalists can more 
easily as well as more expeditiously than individuals col- 
lect and distribute such information as cannot but tend 
to increase the products and improve the soil." The 
original signers of the constitution, twenty-seven in num- 
ber, were as follows : — 

1 See p. 228. 



PROMINENT SOCIETIES. 407 

Lovett Peters, Nahum Fisher, 

Elmer Brigham, Elijah Brigham, 

James Leach, Charles B. Parkman, 

George Denny, Abijah Stone, 

Jabez G. Fisher, Jonathan Forbes, 

Holway Brigham, Sanford Ruggles, 

Luke Blake, Samuel Chamberlain, 

S. Deane Fisher, Hartwell Bullard, 

Otis Brigham, Abijah Wood, 

John R. Fay, Asa Sherman, 

Nathan E. Fisher, George O. Brigham, 

Ephraim T. Forbes, John A. Fayerweather, 

Aaron Sherman, Charles P. Rice, 
Josiah Brigham. 

The society holds frequent meetings for the discussion 
of agricultural topics, and also, at intervals of one or two 
years, fairs for the exhibition of stock and produce. Its 
fifty years of valuable service seems in no way to have 
decreased its usefulness and vigor. 

Another society, which is well supported by farmers 
and their families, is the Westborough Grange, No. 116, 
Patrons of Husbandry. Its object is both social and edu- 
cational. It was instituted some six years ago, and has 
a membership of one hundred and thirty. 

Among the literary associations in Westborough, none 
has been more prominent, and none has done more for 
the good of the town, than the Westborough Young Men's 
Debating Society. Though it is now apparently nearing 
its end, its record has been too creditable to pass unno- 
ticed. The society was organized December 29, 1870, with 
a membership of seventeen young men. Its object was 
to train its members in parliamentary practices and to 
give them experience in debate and literary exercises. 



408 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

The meetings were held every Monday evening from Oc- 
tober to June. A " public debate " was generally held at 
the first meeting in every month, and for many years 
attracted a large audience. A paper, known as The Uni- 
versal Disputant, added spice to the other exercises on 
these occasions. The society had a library of a hundred 
and fifty volumes. A good part of it was the gift of Dr. 
William Curtis, a staunch friend of the society, who left 
at his death a legacy of two hundred dollars for its ben- 
efit. The society's roll of membership contains the names 
of over two hundred young men, many of whom are now 
achieving eminence in the pulpit, at the bar, and in poli- 
tics, where their early training in the Debating Society is 
showing its value. For many years the society conducted 
a course of lectures and entertainments in the Town Hall. 
Under its auspices have appeared Wendell Phillips, Wil- 
liam Parsons, Archibald Forbes, Schuyler Colfax, Mary 
A. Livermore, De Witt Talmage, and other eminent lec- 
turers. The society's annual dramatic entertainment was 
a feature of the season, and its annual reunion was always 
an enjoyable and successful event. The organization, how- 
ever, was encroached upon by many newer societies. It 
has recently given up its rooms and sold its furniture. 

Another society which formerly flourished was the West- 
borough Reform Club. It was organized August 7, 1876, 
for the purpose of assisting in the reform of those who were 
addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors, and to arouse 
public sentiment to a realizing sense of the evils of intem- 
perance. During its earlier years the club made a vigor- 
ous fight against the liquor traffic. To the agitation which 
it caused is due much of the peace and prosperity of 
Westborough at the present time. The club held many 



PROMINENT SOCIETIES. 409 

meetings for the discussion of the " rum question," and 
entertained many of the famous temperance agitators of 
the day. Mrs. Malloy, of Illinois, the well-known lec- 
turer, was a valuable assistant of the organization in its 
earlier struggles. The Reform Club has gradually died 
out, though not on account of indifference towards the 
temperance question. 

In addition to temperance societies in the churches, 
there is at present the Welcome Lodge, No. 150, In- 
dependent Order of Good Templars. Its rooms are in 
Grand Army Block. The lodge was instituted March 9, 
1883, and has about seventy members. 

The most prominent secret societies, it is perhaps need- 
less to say, are the Odd Fellows and the Masons. The 
former were the first to obtain a foothold in Westborough. 
Hockomocko Lodge, No. 79, I. O. O. F., was instituted 
July 15, 1845. Meetings were held for some time in the 
third story of the "Old Arcade," but March 9, 1847, the 
Lodge gave up its charter. It was re-instituted March 
11, 1875. From 1875 to 1880 its meetings were held in 
Masonic Hall. In the latter year its quarters in Daven- 
port's Block were completed and dedicated. The mem- 
bership of the Lodge is over two hundred. Connected 
with it is the Hockomocko Relief Association, established 
March 27, 1882, for the purpose of assisting members in 
case of sickness, and their families in case of death. Its 
membership is about one hundred. Laurel Degree Lodge, 
No. 44, Daughters of Rebecca, — a society for the wives, 
daughters, and sisters of Odd Fellows, — was instituted 
March 11, 1885. Its membership is one hundred and fifty. 

Siloam Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, was insti- 
tuted in 1866. For two years its rooms were in the old 



410 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

Union Block, but since 1869 it has occupied half of the 
third story of Post-Office Block. It has one hundred and 
thirteen members. Bethany Chapter, No. 13, Order of the 
Eastern Star, which is composed of Masons and members 
of their families, was instituted March 9, 1883. Its mem- 
bers number one hundred and seventeen. 

Division No. 20, Ancient Order of Hibernians, which 
has a membership of about sixty, was instituted April 9, 
1875. Its rooms are in the upper story of the building 
occupied by D. S. Dunlap & Son. 

The Village Improvement Society was organized Novem- 
ber 8, 1878, with the following officers : President, George 
O. Brigham; vice-presidents, John A. Fayerweather and 
George N. Smalley ; secretary, John W. Brittan ; treasurer, 
Charles S. Henry. It was modelled after the Laurel Hill 
Association, of Stockbridge, a full account of which was 
given in Scribner's Magazine, May, 1877. Its object, as 
stated in the constitution, is as follows : — 

" The object of this association shall be to improve and orna- 
ment the streets and public grounds of the village by planting and 
cultivating trees, establishing and maintaining walks, grading and 
draining roadways, establishing and protecting good grass-plots 
and borders in the streets and public squares, securing a proper 
public supply of water, establishing and maintaining such sewerage 
as shall be needed for the best sanitary condition of the village, 
providing public fountains and drinking-troughs, breaking out paths 
through the snow, lighting the streets, encouraging the formation 
of a library and reading-room, and generally doing whatever may 
tend to the improvement of the village as a place of residence." 

The town has attended to many of these matters, but 
the society has found ample field for its exertions. The 
reports of the treasurer show that over two thousand dol- 



INSURANCE ORDERS. 41 1 

lars has been expended for improvements. Among the 
society's most important work have been the setting out 
of nine hundred shade-trees in different parts of the town, 
the erection of a fountain in front of the Soldiers' Monu- 
ment, the grading and fencing of the triangles at the junc- 
tion of School and South Streets and at the junction of 
Church and Milk Streets, and the placing of drinking- 
fountains in the Square and at the head of School Street. 
Perhaps more important than all is its success in arousing 
interest in the subject of local improvements and in 
stimulating citizens to individual exertions. 

The past few years have seen the organization of many 
insurance orders. At present six of them are represented 
in Westborough, as follows : — 

Parkman Council, No. 297, Royal Arcanum, instituted in 1879, 
has sixty-eight members. 

Westborough Lodge, No. 91, Order of United Working-men, 
instituted October 26, 1887, has fifty members. 

Chauncy Lodge, No. 130, Fraternal Circle, instituted July 11, 
1889, has thirty-five members. 

Westborough Lodge, No. 24, Order of JEg\s, instituted Septem- 
ber 21, 1889, has about twenty members. 

Arcadian League, No. 11, American Protective League, insti- 
tuted in 1889, has one hundred and six members. 

Mount Pleasant Commandery, No. 13, Order of the Golden 
Grail, instituted June 14, 1890, has forty-four members. 

There was a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, 
known as John Sedgwick Post, No. 21, G. A. R., organized 
in Westborough, September 24, 1867. It was named in 
honor of the gallant General Sedgwick, Commander of the 
Sixth Corps, who fell at Spottsylvania. The Post existed 
about four years. On June 18, 1881, the present orga- 



412 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

nization, Arthur G. Biscoe Post, No. 80, G. A. R., was 
formed, with fifty-one charter members. It was named in 
honor of a comrade in the ranks, afterwards a prominent 
Westborough lawyer, who served in Company E, Fifty- 
first Regiment, M. V. M. The membership of the Post is 
one hundred and twenty-three. It has excellent rooms in 
the new Grand Army Block on South Street. Its relief 
fund amounts to about twenty-three hundred dollars. 

The Woman's Relief Corps, an auxiliary organization, 
was formed January 1, 1887. Its membership is about 
one hundred. 

The Frank L. Stone Encampment, No. 76, Sons of 
Veterans, named after Dr. Stone of Westborough, was 
organized May 12, 1887. It has a membership of 
thirty-six. 

Of the " labor organizations " in Westborough, the 
largest, oldest, and most prominent is the Westborough 
Assembly, 4,191, Knights of Labor. It was organized 
September 9, 1884. Its membership at one time was over 
seven hundred, but at present it is less than three hundred. 
The Assembly has over a thousand dollars in its treasury. 
Connected with the Knights of Labor in a league, offen- 
sive and defensive, is the New England Lasters' Protective 
Union. This organization has a strong and well-organized 
branch in Westborough. It was formed August 10, 1887, 
and has nearly a hundred members. A branch of the 
Boot and Shoemakers' International Union, which has at 
present two hundred members, has recently been organ- 
ized. There has been comparatively little trouble in 
Westborough, it may be well to add, between the manu- 
facturers and their employees. 

The Young Men's Christian Association was organized 



BOARD OF TRADE. 413 

August 8, 1888, with the following officers: Winfield 
P. Porter, president; G. Milton Fisher, vice-president; 
Charles B. Tewksbury, secretary; and Charles H. Howard, 
treasurer. Its object, as stated in the constitution, is " the 
improvement of the spiritual, mental, social, and physical 
condition of young men." Winfield P. Porter is the 
general secretary. There are over a hundred members. 
The Association has pleasant rooms in Grand Army 
Block. It has a library of two hundred and fifty volumes. 
The reading-room is well supplied with papers, and the 
amusement room with games. The Association con- 
ducts a course of lectures and entertainments each winter. 
Among the presents which it has received is the income 
of $1,000 from the late William R. Gould. The Aux- 
iliary Association, which was formed May 24, 1889, has 
one hundred and seventy members. 

The Westborough Board of Trade succeeded the Busi- 
ness Men's Association, organized' May 10, 1886, which 
had failed to meet the expectations of its founders. It 
was formed January 27, 1890. Its object, as stated in the 
constitution, is as follows: — 

" The object of the association shall be to encourage and pro- 
mote the growth of manufactures and other industries within the 
town of Westborough ; to acquire, preserve, and disseminate in- 
formation regarding the industrial advantages, opportunities, and 
developments of the town and vicinity ; and to assist in all lawful 
and honorable ways in the cultivation of a spirit of harmonious 
progress, and a disposition to intelligent co-operation on the part 
of all citizens for whatever will conduce to the general interest and 
welfare of the community." 

The Board of Trade has eighty-three members. Its 
officers are as follows: President, Melvin H. Walker; vice- 



4H LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

president, Bowers C. Hathaway; secretary, Eugene E. 
Dunlap ; treasurer, Frank V. Bartlett. There are stand- 
ing committees on manufactures, railroad matters, trade, 
reception, soliciting and advertising, and' sanitation. 

The Westborough Historical Society is one of the re- 
cent organizations. It was incorporated February 28, 
1889, with twenty-three charter members. The present 
membership is about forty. The following officers have 
served since the Society was organized : President, John 
A. Fayerweather ; vice-president, Benjamin B. Nourse; 
secretary and treasurer, Charles S. Henry; directors, 
William T. Forbes, Edward C. Bates, and Abbie F. Judd. 
The object of the organization is " the investigation of 
matters of local history, the collection of objects of his- 
torical and scientific interest, and the maintenance of a 
library." The Society has already acquired many inter- 
esting relics, and as soon as it has secured proper quarters 
it is expected that its collection will show rapid growth. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1876-1890. 

WATERWORKS. — PHENOMENA. — NEW BULDINGS. — OTHER 
IMPROVEMENTS. 

THE most important of the public improvements 
which have marked the past fifteen years was the 
introduction of Sandra water in 1879. For a dozen years 
or more, the need of a better supply of water, especially 
for fire purposes, had frequently been brought to the 
attention of the town ; but the first record of any public 
action is in the report of a town-meeting held August I, 
1870. The tenth article in the warrant read as follows: 

" To see if the town will take any measures to obtain water from 
Mr. Christopher Whitney's hill, or any other source more practi- 
cable, for the use of the village, or act anything thereon." 

The matter was referred to the engineers of the fire 
department, but no further action resulted. The burning 
of Union Block, April 14, 1872, again brought the subject 
into prominence. At a meeting held May 20, 1872, there 
was an article in the warrant to see if the town would take 
measures to introduce water from outside the centre of the 
village. It was voted that the selectmen, — Daniel F. 
Newton, William M. Child, and B. Alden Nourse, — with 
Charles H. Pierce and Sherman Converse, be a committee 
to investigate the subject. At an adjourned meeting, June 



41 6 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

17, the selectmen were instructed to petition the Legisla- 
ture at its next session for authority " to bring water from 
any of the streams or ponds within the limits of the town ; " 
and the committee previously chosen were authorized to 
expend a sum not exceeding rive hundred dollars in 
further investigation. 

The petition of the selectmen was duly presented to the 
Legislature, and an Act was passed, — approved March 
*5> 1873, — granting the desired authority. 

The committee chosen May 20, 1872, issued a printed 
report, in which the whole matter of a water-supply was 
thoroughly and ably discussed. The engineer, Charles 
H. Pierce, recommended Sandra Pond and Jackstraw 
Brook as the best source of supply. So strong was the 
opposition at the town-meeting, April ti, 1873, that be- 
sides accepting the Act of the Legislature, no action was 
taken. At a later meeting, July 2, — shortly after the dis- 
astrous fire on South Street, — the town chose as water 
commissioners Reuben Boynton for three years, Sherman 
Converse for two years, and Josiah Childs for one year, 
and instructed them to prepare and report a plan for a 
better supply of water for fire purposes. At an adjourned 
meeting, July 30, the commissioners submitted two plans. 
Neither was satisfactory to the town. The wisdom of intro- 
ducing water for fire purposes only was generally doubted, 
and received little support from the commissioners. 

During the two following years various plans were pro- 
posed, but no important action was taken until July 8, 
1875, when the broad question of a water supply for all 
purposes came before the town. After another long dis- 
cussion, the commissioners — Reuben Boynton, Sherman 
Converse, and George N. Smalley — were instructed to 



WATERWORKS. 417 

procure the services of a competent engineer for making 
further surveys and estimates. At an adjourned meet- 
ing, August 4, the commissioners presented the report of 
Phinehas Ball, of Worcester, the engineer whom they had 
chosen. After considering all the plans, Mr. Ball recom- 
mended Sandra Pond and Jackstraw Brook, — just as Mr. 
Pierce had done in 1873. The expense, according to his 
estimate, would be about $40,000. The report of the 
commissioners came before the town for action August 
21 ; but a motion to construct waterworks in accordance 
with Mr. Ball's recommendations was laid on the table by 
a decisive vote. 

For three years the town took no further action. The 
subject, however, was frequently discussed, and its import- 
ance became more and more manifest. In 1878 there was 
a favorable opportunity for carrying out the project. Iron 
and other materials were exceptionally low, and labor was 
plenty. At a town-meeting held September 16, it was 
finally voted, on motion of George O. Brigham, that 

" The water commissioners be and they are hereby authorized 
and directed to contract for the works necessary to supply this 
town with water from Sandra Pond, so called, substantially in 
accordance with the plan of Chas. H. Pierce, civil engineer, which 
I herewith present, with such changes and modifications as may in 
the progress of the work appear advisable, provided the sum stipu- 
lated to be paid for the same shall not exceed the sum of $21,000, 
exclusive of land and water damages, and that said water commis- 
sioners have full power to take and hold according to law, for the 
town of Westborough, any and all lands, waters, and water rights 
which may be necessary for the construction of said works, and to 
enable the town to obtain the full benefit of the 77th chapter of 
the Acts of the Legislature for the year 1873, and that said com- 
missioners have power to perform such other acts in the name of 



41 8 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

the town as may be necessary to obtain the benefit of said chapter, 
and that the bonds of the town of Westborough, payable in thirty 
years from this date, with interest payable semi-annually at the rate 
of five per cent per annum, to be denominated ' Westborough 
Water Bonds,' signed by the town treasurer and countersigned by 
the majority of the selectmen, be issued to an amount not exceed- 
ing in the whole $30,000, to pay for the construction of said water 
works and land and water damages connected therewith, in accord- 
ance with the provisions of said 77th chapter, and the said water 
commissioners and the town treasurer be a committee for the sale 
of said bonds, and that said committee be hereby authorized to 
sell said bonds in behalf of the town at public or private sale at 
such times, in such amounts, and for such prices as the said com- 
mittee may deem expedient." 

Mr. Pierce's plan, as stated in his subsequent report to 
the town, was as follows : — 

"This scheme contemplated putting Sandra Pond in suitable 
condition for present use as a reservoir; constructing a gate 
chamber ; laying a leading main from the reservoir to the junction 
of South and School Streets, and supply mains in South Street, 
and in East and West Main Streets, the latter extending from High 
to Church Streets; and setting the proper number of hydrants 
upon the contemplated mains. All appurtenances necessary to 
efficient service, both immediate and future, were to be provided ; 
and the mains were to be of sufficient capacity to meet the respec- 
tive demands upon them whenever the supply should be generally 
extended. In short, the proposed work was to be considered and 
treated as a part and basis of a future completed system, however 
disproportionate to immediate requirements it might seem to be." 

The pond chosen for a reservoir is situated about two 
miles from the Square, in the southern part of the town. 
It was formerly flowed sufficiently for mill purposes. The 
present upper basin served as a cranberry- meadow. Many 



WATERWORKS. 419 

persons, who " always lived in the neighborhood of the 
pond," foreboded lack of water in dry seasons ; but the 
engineers made no mistake in promising an abundant 
supply. The pond is fed from a watershed of six hundred 
and seventy-five acres, providing in the dryest seasons 
275,000,000 gallons of water. Its height above the level 
of the Square is one hundred and thirty-eight feet. 

The work of putting the pond in proper condition began 
at once, and on November 23 the reservoir was ready to 
receive water. The remainder of the work was postponed 
until spring. On January 16, 1879, the contract, covering 
material and labor for mains, gate, hydrants, and other 
appurtenances, complete and ready for service, — includ- 
ing a guarantee to maintain the integrity of their work for 
one year, — was awarded to R. D. Wood & Co., of Phila- 
delphia. The amount to be paid was $14,550. The con- 
tractors began work April 28, and June 20, when water 
was let into the mains and the hydraulic-pressure test 
applied, the undertaking was practically accomplished. 

The works had been built at a peculiarly favorable time. 
The cost for material and labor a year later, according to 
the commissioners, would have increased the outlay forty 
per cent. 

Under authority granted by the town March 3, 1879, 
the water commissioners bought the Sandra farm, con- 
taining about thirty-one acres, for $2,374. The water 
privileges bought amounted to $4,248. 75 ; and the amount 
of damages awarded was $14,689.28. 

Some fault was found with the quality of the water 
for a year or two after the completion of the works. In 
the summer of 1880 it was unfit for use. By vote of the 
town, the commissioners drew off about four fifths of the 



420 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

water, and cleaned the basin and margin of the pond. 
The water was again bad during the hot weather of 1882. 
The commissioners consulted a civil engineer, Percy M. 
Blake, who recommended the building of a dam between 
the upper and lower basins. The same remedy was again 
suggested for the scarcity of water in 1886. Phinehas 
Ball was the engineer consulted. In accordance with his 
plans, a dam was built between the two basins, raising the 
water in the upper pond five feet above the former high- 
water mark. The result, with reference both to the quan- 
tity and quality of water, has been a complete success. 

The pipes have been extended in all parts of the town. 
The mains are twelve miles in length, and the number of 
service-pipes — supplying houses, factories, and the rest 
— is over six hundred. There are seventy-nine hydrants. 
The total cost of the water works is about $195,000; the 
income has been about $75,000. The net cost is therefore 
about $120,000; but this sum by no means represents 
the value of the water works in convenience, in protection 
from fires, and in the prevention of disease. 

On September 6, 1881, the people of New England 
enjoyed, or at least experienced, a repetition of the phe- 
nomenon which had so impressed their forefathers a cen- 
tury before. I refer to the "yellow" day. There had 
been great forest fires to the north and west, and smoke 
again wrapped this section of the country in a dense cloud. 
The sun rose like an orb of bronze. Early in the fore- 
noon a strange darkness — not merely making the sur- 
roundings dim, but giving everything a ghastly, lurid 
hue — began to settle upon the earth. The effect in 
Westborough is described in the following contemporary 
account, clipped from the CJironotype : — 



THE "YELLOW DAY. 42 1 

" The dark day of 1 780 has been often spoken of, but the dark 
day of 188 1 must take its place with it, and pass into history as 
a phenomenon of our time. So dark was it that in this and other 
towns hereabouts the schools were dismissed, and business in 
the manufacturing establishments quite suspended. Lamps were 
lighted, which had the appearance of electric lights. All Nature 
seemed to put on a new dress, and in some instances the scene 
was enchanting. The air was so still that hardly a leaf moved, and 
the atmosphere was very oppressive. The heavens seemed to have 
donned a new dress, of a greenish yellow, as far as the eye could 
reach, without a break to relieve the monotony. Astonishment 
was pictured on many a countenance, and people were out in all 
directions, beholding the sight with great wonderment. Various 
were the interrogatories as people met on the street, the more 
common being, ' What does all this mean ? k ' Did you ever see 
the like before ? ' 'Is the world coming to an end ? ' etc. No 
fully satisfactory answer has been given to the question, 'What 
caused it?' Many theories are advanced, but the one generally 
believed is that it was because of extensive forest fires in Canada. 
It is known that on that day a conjunction of the planet Uranus 
and the sun took place, and some attribute it to that fact. Others 
thought the comet's tail had switched itself defiantly into the 
world's face. The day following was one of intense heat, — such 
heat as has rarely been experienced in this latitude. Whether the 
one had anything to do with the other, is a question for scientists 
to decide. If so, then the smoke theory would have to stand 
aside. But whatever was the cause, it was a remarkable sight, 
such as has not been witnessed before by the oldest inhabitant, 
and probably will not be again for a long time to come." 

There have been other occurrences in recent years that 
deserve mention. On August 10, 1884, an earthquake, 
which jarred the whole Atlantic coast, gave Westborough 
a perceptible shake. In the fall of the same year — owing, 
many scientists affirm, to volcanic dust from the eruptions 
at Krakatau, near Java, during the preceding spring — 



422 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

there was a period of the most gorgeous red sunsets. On 
March 12, 1888, and the two following days, occurred the 
great blizzard, which interrupted communication by rail or 
..wire and caused great damage to property and business. 
It was even more disastrous than the great storm of March 
21, 1868. The latter is chiefly memorable in West- 
borough from the fact that it required six yoke of oxen 
to drag a hearse, mounted on an ox-sled, from the poor- 
farm to the cemetery in the village. 

These storms, as well as the earthquake and the sun- 
sets, were shared with the outside world ; but on October 
10, 1884, the people of Westborough had a phenomenon 
of their own, which produced hardly less wonder than the 
more general events. It is remembered as " the dark 
morning." A large area of sprout and woodland in Cedar 
Swamp had been burning for several days, and one of its 
results was thus described by the Chronotype : — 

" The smoke from the fires was more or less disagreeable dur- 
ing the early part of the week, particularly to sleepers with open 
chamber windows ; but the height of the calamity was reached on 
Wednesday morning, when even the earliest risers found the vil- 
lage enveloped in smoke, accompanied by a light fog. The sun 
rose and shone on other points in regal splendor, but nearly the 
whole of our village was even then in total darkness. The old 
saying, ' Could n't see my hand before me,' was almost literally true, 
for a person five feet away was wholly concealed by the dense 
smoke. A familiar voice a few feet distant would tell that an 
acquaintance was near, but no one in sight. Milkmen were un- 
able to find their customers, tin-horns were used for safety-signals, 
but few teams ventured out, and even at a walking gait collisions 
occurred. One man lost his team, being unable to find the spot 
where he had hitched his horse, and another led his horse to an- 
other man's barn on East Main Street, thinking it was his own, 



"THE DARK MORNING." 423 

that stood half a mile away. Another could not find his boarding- 
house in going from his lodging rooms, and still another was lost 
in front of the Westborough Hotel. The engineer of a morning 
down-train said he entered the fog and smoke at the first railroad 
bridge above the village, and he then ' slowed up ' and ran slowly 
until passing into clear atmosphere at Cordaville. The smoke- 
cloud extended to the north end of the village, to the Blake Place 
on West Main Street, and on East Main Street to Selectman 
Harrington's. At 8 o'clock a. m. the mists began to roll away, 
and at 8.30 the bright sunshine and a summer atmosphere heralded 
one of the most delightful days of the season. Throughout the 
darkness, in rooms with closed windows, the morning papers could 
be easily read without artificial light. With all the great difficulty 
of locomotion outdoors, there was much fun in the novel situation 
of things, and no accidents occurred." 

Early in the morning of April 5, 1886, occurred the 
only disastrous fire since the introduction of Sandra water. 
Owing partly to the headway which the fire had obtained, 
and the combustibility of the buildings, and partly to the 
smallness of the pipe which fed the hydrants in the neigh- 
borhood, the large shop on Milk Street and the Catholic 
church were burned to the ground. The loss was esti- 
mated at $42,000. 

The shop, which was occupied by George B. Brigham 
& Sons, and Smith, Brown & Co., boot and shoe manufac- 
turers, was owned by the Westborough Factory Associ- 
ation. Strenuous efforts were at once made, and the 
present building, occupied by Gould & Walker, was soon 
erected in its place. 

The destruction of the Catholic church hastened the 
erection of the present edifice at the corner of Main and 
Ruggles Streets, where a lot had been purchased in 1873. 
The rectory had been built some years before, and the 



424 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

members of the church had long looked forward to the 
building of a new house of worship. Shortly after the 
fire, more land was purchased, and the present gymnasium 
was fitted up for a temporary chapel. On August I, 
1888, the corner-stone of the new church was laid, with 
appropriate services. Bishop Keane, rector of the Ca- 
tholic University at Washington, delivered the sermon. 
Through the untiring energy of the Rev. John J. McCoy 
and the faithful support of his parishioners, the building 
was completed in the spring of 1889. The ceremonies of 
dedication — which took place May 30, the Feast of the 
Ascension — were conducted by the Rev. Thomas Griffin, 
chancellor of the diocese, assisted by a large number of the 
clergy. The Rev. Father Griffin, with the Rev. Edmund 
D. Casey, of Williamstown, as deacon, and the Rev. Patrick 
Boyle, of Beverly, as sub-deacon, celebrated the solemn 
high mass. The master of ceremonies was the Rev. J. F. 
Redican, of Cordaville. The sermon, a forcible and effec- 
tive discourse, based on the first chapter of the Acts of 
the Apostles, was delivered by the Rev. Francis McCarthy, 
S. J., of New York. The church is a beautiful structure. 
Its design and finish are admirably set forth in the follow- 
ing description from The Messenger: — 

" The church, though in part a wooden structure, and on the 
outside running to simple architectural lines, is yet in its interior 
finish a model of massive strength, combined with exquisite har- 
mony of color, tone, and decoration. Indeed, so striking is this 
prevailing tone of harmony, so perfect is each effect in keeping 
with every other and with the whole, that one feels forced to bor- 
row the words of Sir Walter Scott and describe the result in its 
still, harmonious beauty as being like frozen music. The church is 
finished in Romanesque style, the prevailing characteristic of which 



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NEW CATHOLIC CHURCH. 425 

is the rounded arches as distinguished from the pointed arches of 
the Gothic style. Two rows of massive square columns divide the 
church into three aisles. Each column is surmounted by an ela- 
borate capital somewhat resembling the Corinthian in ornamenta- 
tion ; from each of these spring four arches, those of the centre 
aisle rising to an imposing height and giving as one enters the 
edifice an appearance of strength and grandeur that is particularly 
striking and appropriate. In the spaces on the ceiling between the 
main arches are paintings of great beauty and unusual artistic 
merit, representing in the order named : the Annunciation, the 
Nativity of our Lord, the Adoration of the Wise Men, Christ bless- 
ing Little Children, the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. In the 
sanctuary on either side of the high altar are beautiful life-size 
paintings of the Last Supper and the Marriage Feast of Cana of 
Galilee. 

" The frescoing of the church is very fine and deserving of special 
notice. In addition to the paintings above mentioned, the spaces 
on the ceiling of the side aisles are decorated with special and 
appropriate designs, emblematic of the sacraments of the Church, 
while the walls and columns are finished in soft tints of brown, 
relieved with judicious ornamentation of gold and lighter colors. 
The pews are of a dark-brown color and are very handsome in 
design, the backs being of open work of an ornamental character. 

" The altars, three in number, are very chaste and beautiful, and 
in their rounded lines and subdued tints of cream and gold harmo- 
nize perfectly with the general character of the sacred edifice. The 
high altar especially, with its background of beautiful paintings, 
stained glass windows representing Saint Cornelius, Saint Luke, and 
Saint Margaret, and the graceful lines of the sanctuary, supported 
by carved angelic figures, forms a picture that not only satisfies the 
artistic perceptions, but lifts the soul to the contemplation of Him 
in whose honor the beautiful edifice has been erected and to 
whose service it is now forever dedicated by the solemn ritual of 
His Holy Church. 

"The windows are of stained glass finely executed, and are 
embellished with pictures of saints and religious symbols. The 
windows are gifts to the church from Rev. Thomas Griffin, Rev. 



426 LATER HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 

J. J. McCoy, Hubbard Willson, Patrick Brady, Patrick Murphy, 
John Dee, Joseph Wheeler, T. McEnany, and other members of 
the congregation. A beautiful sanctuary lamp was presented by 
ladies of Worcester." 

In addition to the introduction of Sandra water and the 
erection of new buildings, the past fifteen years have seen 
numerous improvements in the appearance and condition 
of the town. The extension of concrete sidewalks, the 
setting out of hundreds of shade-trees, and the better care 
of highways, have done much to increase its attractiveness. 

Since 1887 — when the Westborough Electric Light 
Company was organized by Christopher Whitney, William 
T. Forbes, Henry K. Taft, George O. Brigham, and Thomas 
T. Robinson — electric lights have come into use for light- 
ing the streets, the town hall, several of the churches, 
many stores and offices, and some dwellings. 

In 1887, Dr. William Curtis left a legacy of $1,000 each 
to the town and to the Catholic church for the construc- 
tion of gateways at the entrances of Pine Grove Cemetery 
and the Catholic Cemetery. The work at each place has 
been well performed. 

The new buildings which have been erected, — dwell- 
ings, factories, and business blocks, — are for the most 
part ornamental and substantial structures. The new 
engine-house, the school-house on Phillips Street, the new 
home for paupers, and some other buildings have already 
been mentioned. In 1880, Alvan Davenport erected his 
four-story brick block on Summer Street. The Whitney 
House, erected by Christopher Whitney in 1881, is a hand- 
some four-story brick block, with stores on the ground- 
floor and hotel above. The town had long felt the need 
of a new hotel, and Mr. Whitney's enterprise and public 



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NEW BUILDINGS. 427 

spirit in erecting such an excellent building deserve a 
word of praise. In 1882, Mrs. M. L. Bragg built a three- 
story wooden building next to her residence on South 
Street. Park Building, an excellent brick block, was 
erected by Charles S. Henry, in the same year. C. D. Cobb 
& Co. erected their brick store-house on Milk Street in 
1886, using the site of an old wooden building, which 
was burned in 1881. In 1884, the Methodists erected 
their excellent parsonage at the corner of Church and 
Heath Streets. Gould's Block, on Milk Street, was erected 
by William R. Gould in 1887. In 1888, John E. Day, 
of Worcester, removed the old Parker house on South 
Street, and erected Grand Army Block on the site. In 
1889, he erected Curtis Block — three one-story stores — 
on East Main Street. The " Old Arcade " at last, after 
a hundred and forty years of service, has yielded to the 
demands of trade. Alvan N. Davenport is erecting on the 
site of the old meeting-house a handsome brick block, — 
" Arcade Building " it is to be called, — more ornamental 
and serviceable, if not more interesting, than the familiar 
landmark which it displaces. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

THE Committee in charge of the town history have thought it 
advisable to supplement the preceding pages with brief 
sketches of citizens who have been active in making the town's 
history what it is. Prominence in town affairs — in both munici- 
pal and business matters — has been the general test in making a 
selection ; but it is unavoidable that sketches of many worthy men, 
whom their friends deem not less prominent than some whose 
names appear, should be omitted. All will agree, however, that 
the men whose biographies are here given deserve the honor, and 
that sketches of their lives make the history more complete. 

Ebenezer Parkman. For an account of the life of the Rev. 
Ebenezer Parkman the reader is referred to the early pages of the 
preceding history. His life was too intimately interwoven with 
town and ecclesiastical affairs to be treated apart from them. 

Breck Parkman. The eleventh child of the Rev. Ebenezer 
Parkman was Breck, so called after the family name of his mother, 
Hannah, daughter of the Rev. Robert Breck, of Marlborough. 
She was Mr. Parkman's second wife, whom he had married in 
1737. Breck was born January 27, 1748. His youth was spent 
in farming, and in learning the carpenter's trade. In 1777 he 
married Susanna, daughter of Col. Levi Brigham, of Northborough, 
and soon afterwards established the first village store. The 



432 APPENDIX. 

building which he occupied — using one part for his store, and 
the other for his dwelling — now stands at the corner of South 
and Cedar Streets. It originally stood between the meeting-house 
and the parsonage. Subsequently Breck Parkman, in company 
with Elijah Brigham, afterwards prominent as a judge and mem- 
ber of Congress, built a store on Main Street. The building 
now stands in the rear of Central Block. Afterwards, their sons 
having become of age, the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. 
Parkman built the old structure on the site of the present Post- 
Office block. It was known, until its destruction by fire in 1868, 
as the "Parkman Store." 

Breck Parkman died February 3, 1825 ; his wife, Susanna, died 
November 10, 1834. Their children were Hannah Breck, Susanna 
Brigham, Charles, Robert Breck, Anna (or Nancy), Mary Augusta, 
and Charlotte Sophia. The latter became the wife of George 
Denny, a prosperous Boston merchant and the president of the 
Granite Bank. He resided for many years in Westborough on 
the estate now owned by the Rev. J. D. Potter. 

Charles Parkman. Charles Parkman, the third child and old- 
est son of Breck and Susanna Parkman, was born in Westborough 
May 26, 1785. He graduated from Harvard College in 1803, and 
entered his father's store in Westborough. On January 26, 1810, 
he was married to Joanna Phillips Fay, daughter of Jonathan Fay, 
Esq., of Concord, Mass. She was born October 27, 1784, and 
died December 3, 1826. The children of Charles and Joanna 
Parkman were Joanna Fay (Rising), Charles Breck, Mary Augusta, 
Lucy Prescott (Fisher), Susan Brigham, Hannah Sophia (Taft), 
Samuel, and Maria Denny Parkman (Leach). 

On his father's death, in 1825, Charles Parkman succeeded him, 
and carried on the store until he died, September 13, 1834. He 
was postmaster from the re-establishment of the post-office at 
Westborough, March 16, 1832, until his death. For many years 
he was captain of the Light Infantry Company. In 1829 he 
served as representative to the General Court. From 1816 to 1829 
he was treasurer of the town. In all local matters he took a 
prominent and influential part. 




(itfttKoJ 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 433 

Charles B. Parkman. On the death of Charles Parkman, in 
1834, his son Charles B. succeeded him, and carried on the store 
for a few years. This son, who was born in Westborough June 13, 
1 813, had graduated from Harvard College in June, 1834, — about 
three months before his father's death. The loss of his father 
making it necessary for him to abandon all thoughts of studying 
for a profession, he devoted his time to settling the estate. From 
October 30, 1835, to April 23, 1838, he was postmaster at West- 
borough. After spending only a few years in this town he moved 
West. He resided successively in St. Louis, among the miners in 
California, at Madison, Ind., and finally in Indianapolis. There he 
became secretary of the Indianapolis Rolling-Mill Company, hold- 
ing this position for some twenty years before his death, which 
occurred June 26, 1885. Mr. Parkman was an exceptionally gen- 
erous and warm-hearted man, with qualities that endeared him to 
hosts of friends. 

Elijah Brtgham. Among the sons of David Brigham, one of 
the pioneer settlers, was Levi, who was born in 17 16. He mar- 
ried Susanna Grout, and settled on the northern part of his father's 
extensive farm. He was a selectman of Westborough in 1763, and 
after the division of the town (his farm lying to the north of the 
dividing line) he held the same office for many years in Northbor- 
ough. Breck Parkman married his daughter Susanna. Levi Brig- 
ham had nine children. Elijah, the subject of this sketch, who 
was born July 7, 1 75 1, was the fourth. He graduated from Dart- 
mouth College in 1778 and began to study law. He changed his 
plans before being admitted to the Bar, and settled in Westborough 
as a merchant. In 1780 he married Ann Sophia, daughter of the 
Rev. Ebenezer Parkman. At her death, three years later, she left 
two children, Anna Sophia and Elijah. In 1786 Mr. Brigham mar- 
ried Mrs. Sarah Hammock, of Marlborough, who, dying a year 
later, left one child, Sally. His third wife, to whom he was married 
in 1792, was Sarah, daughter of the famous patriot, Gen. Artemas 
Ward, of Shrewsbury. She lived until 1838. Her children were 
Ann Maria, who married Ebenezer M. Phillips, Sally Sophronia, 
Dana Ward, Susanna Walter, and Catherine Martha Brigham. 



434 APPENDIX. 

Mr. Brigham, who is better known from his subsequent title as 
"Judge " Brigham, took an active part in public affairs. In 1785, 
and from 1789 to 1796, he served as selectman. He represented 
Westborough in the Legislature in 1791 and 1793. He also served 
twelve years in the Massachusetts Senate, and two years on the 
Governor's Council. For sixteen years he was a judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas for Worcester County. He was a mem- 
ber of Congress from 18 10 until his death, which occurred at Wash- 
ington, December 22, 1818. "Of this man," says the Rev. Abner 
Morse, in his history of the Brigham family, " I cannot speak in 
justice to convictions and escape the suspicion of extravagance 
among strangers, while among his acquaintance who survive, noth- 
ing would fail of a hearty response which I might say commenda- 
tory of his social and domestic virtues, his commercial integrity 
and honor, his great common-sense and refinement, his patriotism 
and political integrity, his wisdom and benevolence, his fidelity to 
every official and important trust, and his services in the advance- 
ment of the moral, civil, and educational interests of the community 
in which he lived." 

Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, was born in West- 
borough, December 8, 1765. On the maternal side he was de- 
scended from John Fay, one of the earliest settlers of the town. 
His paternal ancestors were among the most respectable farmers of 
Worcester County. In his youth Whitney displayed many indica- 
tions of mechanical genius. Becoming dissatisfied with the limited 
educational advantages of his native town, in May, 1 789, at the age 
of twenty-four, he entered the freshman class at Yale College. He 
graduated in 1792. In the fall of that year, having been engaged 
as tutor in Georgia, he travelled from New York to Savannah. 
Among his companions on the journey were Mrs. Greene, the 
widow of the famous Revolutionary general, and her family. On 
arriving in Georgia, Whitney found the place which he expected to 
occupy already filled. His friend Mrs. Greene offered him a home 
while he was carrying out his project of studying law. He accepted 
her generous offer, and remained in her family many months. 
Shortly after his arrival — the story is familiar — his attention was 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 435 

called to the great need of a machine for separating seeds from the 
cotton fibre. The industrial progress of both England and America 
was retarded by the lack of such a contrivance. Whitney forsook his 
law-books, secured a sample of cotton, made his own tools, and in 
the spring of 1 793 had invented the machine " which," it is said, 
" has done more for cotton-growers, manufacturers, commerce, and 
civilization than any other one machine that was ever invented." 
The result upon the prosperity of the Southern States, in fact of 
the whole world, was marvellous ; but the inventor, in spite of his 
patent and his heroic struggles to secure his rights, received for his 
labors little reward. In 1798, however, he made a large contract 
with the United States government for the manufacture of fire-arms, 
and in this business, which he carried on at Whitneyville, near New 
Haven, he amassed considerable property. By ingenious inventions 
and processes he revolutionized the clumsy mechanical methods 
of the times. The " uniformity system," for example, which is now 
used in the manufacture of all sorts of tools and machinery, was 
one of his ideas. 

In January, 18 17, Mr. Whitney was married to Henrietta F. 
Edwards, daughter of the Hon. Pierrepont Edwards, of New Ha- 
ven, Conn. He had four children, — three daughters and one son. 
The last, named after his father, is still living. The death of the 
inventor occurred in 1825. His body is buried at New Haven, 
Conn. 

Mr. Whitney was not only one of the greatest inventors which 
America has produced, but also a man of extremely interest- 
ing and attractive life and character. His career, which it is 
unnecessary to describe more fully here, is admirably set forth 
in Professor Denison Olmsted's Memoir of Eli Whitney, Esq., 
published at New Haven in 1846. His great invention and its 
effects are described by Edward Craig Bates in " The Story of the 
Cotton-gin," which appeared in The New England Magazine for 
May, 1890. 

Otis Brigham, the eldest of the nine children of David and 
Lucy (Harrington) Brigham, was born in 1788. His boyhood was 
spent upon his father's farm, near the present Insane Hospital. 



43 6 APPENDIX. 

Otis Brigham was engaged in farming ; and though his inclina- 
tions and endowments strongly tempted him to enter the ministry, 
he continued in agricultural pursuits, " thinking, perhaps," says his 
biographer, " that the words ' do good ' had not always been syno- 
nymous with ' preach the gospel,' and that he might do something 
to restore their former meaning." l Captain Brigham was prominent 
in both church and town affairs. On the establishment of a Sunday- 
school in 1817 he became both superintendent and teacher, and 
held these positions for more than forty years. His name is found 
on nearly all the important committees of the church. In civil 
affairs he was also active. He served for fourteen years as 
selectman and overseer of the poor ; for twenty years he com- 
monly acted as moderator of the town-meetings ; and during 
two years, 1839 an< ^ 1840, he represented Westborough in the 
Legislature. 

Captain Brigham served in the War of 181 2, and took an active 
part in raising Westborough's quotas during the Civil War. 

Captain Brigham was married to Abigail Bates, daughter of 
Zealous Bates, of Cohasset, and sister of the Rev. Joshua Bates, 
D. D., President of Middleborough College. On the death of 
his first wife he married her sister, Adeline Bates. He had ten 
children, as follows : Henrietta A. (widow of Samuel M. Griggs), 
George Otis, Sereno Leroy, Ivers Jewett, Joshua Bates, Abigail 
Adeline (Hutchinson), Lucy Harrington, Ann Frances, Mary Jane, 
and Daniel Edward Brigham. 

Elmer Brigham, a native and life-long resident, was " a distin- 
guished citizen of Westborough," says the Rev. Abner Morse, in 
his history of the Brigham family, " where, like his senior brother 
[Otis Brigham], he has long enjoyed the entire confidence and 
esteem of the community." He was born September 8, 1 798. 
His parents were David and Lucy (Harrington) Brigham. 

He received his education at Bradford Academy, Bradford, 
Mass. For several years he taught school in Westborough 
and the neighboring towns. He was married to Betsey, daugh- 
ter of Joel and Hannah (Bond) Parker. He carried on his 

1 Rev. Abner Morse, in his history of the Brigham family. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 437 

father's farm, near the present Insane Hospital, for several years, 
but afterwards followed the occupation of farmer on his own 
account. 

He became a member of the church at the age of twenty-five ; 
and from 1848 until he resigned, in 1869, he served the Evan- 
gelical Church as deacon. During his whole life he took an active 
part in town affairs. He held many town offices and served on 
many important committees. During three terms he represented 
Westborough in the Legislature. He was also a member of the 
Senate and of Governor Gardner's Council. In matters of public 
interest he always displayed commendable interest, energy, and 
integrity. 

Deacon Brigham died in Westborough March 3, 18 71. 

The names of his children are as follows : Ellen Elizabeth 
(Hill), Hannah Janette (Howe), Merrick Putnam, Anna Parker 
(Harrington), Sophia Augusta, Susan Parker, Charles Elmer, and 
Calvin Lloyd. 

John A. Fayerweather is one of the oldest and most promi- 
nent residents of Westborough. He was born March 12, 1808, 
and is now, although in his eighty-third year, an active and use- 
ful citizen. This is his native town. His father, Major John 
Fayerweather, a man of considerable property, was a prosperous 
farmer. His mother, Sarah Wheelock, was a daughter of Col. 
Moses Wheelock, who was prominent in local affairs during 
Revolutionary days. 

Mr. Fayerweather enjoyed more than the ordinary educational 
advantages of his day, having studied at Brown University when 
collegiate education was much rarer than now. 

On returning from college he carried on for a few years his 
father's farm, and in 1833 began mercantile life by opening a store 
in the house now belonging to Elijah Burnap, on West Main Street. 
A year later he started a store and tin-shop on the site of the Uni- 
tarian Church. In 1836 he bought the old Parkman store, and 
with various changes in the firm, carried on the business until 
1858. For the succeeding five years he was in the wholesale 
grocery business in Boston. Since retiring from this enterprise, 



438 APPENDIX. 

Mr. Fayerweather has been engaged in the insurance business. 
For the past three years he has been president of the Worcester 
Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 

In addition to this office, Mr. Fayerweather has held many posi- 
tions of trust and influence. Always interested in agricultural mat- 
ters, he has been a member of the Westborough Agricultural 
Society since its organization, in 1839, and has served as president 
of the Worcester County Society. He has been a representative 
to the General Court, selectman, treasurer of the town, and over- 
seer of the poor. He has been president of the First National 
Bank since its incorporation in 186 1. From 1856 to 1859 he 
was a trustee of the State Reform School. In the management of 
public affairs and in the encouragement of local enterprises Mr. 
Fayerweather has had an influential and helpful part. 

He was married in 1831 to Sarah Augusta Tyler, daughter of 
Dr. John E. Tyler, of Boston. She died April 15, 1875. They 
had two children. One died in infancy ; the other is Mrs. Sarah 
Fayerweather Gould, widow of William R. Gould. 

Lyman Belknap, a prominent business-man in Boston and a 
prominent resident of Westborough, was born in this town March 
21, 1809. He was descended from John Belknap, one of the ear- 
liest settlers, who owned a farm on the Flanders road. His parents 
were John and Ruth (Fay) Belknap. "In the school of adversity 
during his youth and early manhood," writes one who knew him, 
" were developed those qualities of mind and heart that in maturer 
years secured for him the high esteem and confidence of all who 
knew him. While quite young he united with the Baptist Church, 
of which he afterwards [in 1856] became deacon. In his Christian 
character he was zealous and consistent, and was always a cheerful 
giver, showing his faith in his works. In a quiet, unostentatious 
way he sought the poor and needy and relieved their necessities." 

Mr. Belknap's business career began in 1830, when, at the age 
of twenty-one, he opened a market in Westborough. He made 
frequent trips to Boston for the purpose of selling meat and pro- 
duce at Quincy market. This business he continued eleven years, 
and then established a produce and commission house in Boston. 




^&^7 0tw dst/t^r* *>s^ts 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 439 

After several changes, in 1848 he opened a store at 12 and 14 
Clinton Street, where he remained until a short time before his 
death. 

During his whole life Deacon Belknap retained his residence in 
Westborough, where he was an honored and respected citizen. He 
held many town offices, including the positions of selectman and 
overseer of the poor. His strong sympathy for the needy and un- 
fortunate made the latter position particularly to his liking. He 
was a director of both the First National and the Savings Bank. 
From 1878 to 1879 he was a trustee of the Reform School, and 
from 1879 (when the plan of management was changed) to 1884 
he was a member of the Board of Trustees of State Primary 
and Reform Schools. He declined a renomination on account 
of failing health. His death occurred January 22, 1886. 

Deacon Belknap was married in 1833 to Martha Morse, daugh- 
ter of Elisha and Patty (Howe) Morse, of Hopkinton. She died 
February 18, 1890. There were two children of this union, — 
Ellen M., widow of the late Calvin M. Winch, and Lyman A. 
Belknap, of Andover. 

Daniel F. Newton, son of Barnabas and Lucy (Godfrey) New- 
ton, is a descendant from some of the earliest settlers of West- 
borough. For three generations at least, the family homestead 
was what is now known as the Blake place, on West Main Street. 
Mr. Newton was born October 10, 181 1. During his youth he 
attended the public schools and worked on his father's farm. At 
the age of nineteen he was apprenticed to Joel Bui lard, the black- 
smith, with whom he remained four years. He afterwards worked 
on the farm for two years, and then began work in the boot and 
shoe shop of Thomas Stone, who occupied at that time a portion 
of the "Old Arcade." In 1840 Mr. Newton began to manu- 
facture for himself, and for the succeeding twenty years carried 
on an extensive business in the old Cross Street factory. He 
retired from manufacturing in i860, and with the exception 
of a few years, when he was in the brokerage business with his 
son at Worcester, he has not been engaged in private business 
since. 



440 APPENDIX. 

Mr. Newton has held almost every town office, having been 
selectman, overseer of the poor, assessor, treasurer, collector, etc. 
From 1852 to 1873 he was deputy-sheriff, and during a portion 
of this period served as court officer at Worcester. For two 
or three years during the war he was government assessor and 
collector. In politics Mr. Newton was a strong Whig, and 
on the breaking up of that party drifted into the Democratic 
ranks. 

In 1831 Mr. Newton was married to Amy A., daughter of Levi 
Bowman, of Westborough. Mrs. Newton died in 1884. There 
were four children of this marriage, two of whom, Abbie F., 
wife of Wilbur E. Forbes, and Frank A. Newton, of Boston, are 
still living. 

Samuel Gates Henry, the only son of Samuel and Polly (Gates) 
Henry, was born in Oakham, Mass., February 14, 181 3. He had 
two sisters, Nancy (Henry) Foster and Mary (Henry) Gould, the 
latter being the mother of the late William R. Gould, of this town. 
He received the educational advantages afforded by the common- 
schools of that period, and when a young man engaged in the busi- 
ness of harness-making and carriage-trimming. Subsequently he 
studied dentistry, and opened a small store for the sale of drugs and 
medicines. Upon removing to Westborough, in 1855, he opened an 
office for the practice of dentistry in the building which was then on 
the corner of Main and South Streets. The same year he bought 
a half-interest in " Eagle Block," then in process of construction, 
and upon its completion, in 1856, opened the first drug-store in 
Westborough, and removed his dental rooms to the same building. 
He continued in these two branches of business until failing health 
compelled him to forego active life. 

He was a public-spirited citizen, until his death maintaining 
an unflagging interest in the advancement and prosperity of his 
adopted town. 

It was largely through his efforts while upon the board of road 
commissioners that Main and South Streets were straightened 
and widened. This improvement, now recognized as both wise 
and timely, necessitated the moving of Central and Eagle Blocks, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 44 1 

which were then enlarged and remodelled. When, in 1873, 
Eagle Block was destroyed by fire, with characteristic energy he at 
once set to work to erect on the same site the much larger and 
finer block that is now known by his name. 

He bought and laid out Chauncy Grove, which was opened as a 
pleasure-ground in the year 1876. 

Dr. Henry was universally esteemed for his kindly spirit and 
thorough integrity. Reared under Calvinistic theology, he was led 
in early life, by his own thought and study, to embrace the liberal 
faith, and upon making Westborough his home, united with the 
Unitarian Church, of which he was ever a steadfast and liberal 
supporter. In his home life he was affectionate, tender, and 
sympathetic, patient under suffering and trial, bowing with trust- 
ing submission to the inevitable. 

His first wife, to whom he was married in 1836, was Nancy 
Davis French, of Oakham, Mass. She died in 1853, leaving five 
children, all of whom, excepting the youngest, who died in infancy, 
are now living, — Mrs. George H. Raymond, of Oakdale Park, 
Mich. ; Mrs. William R. Warner, of Fall River, Mass. ; Charles S. 
Henry, of this town ; and Mary C. Henry, teacher in Fall River. 
In 1854 he was married to Pamelia Gates, of Petersham, Mass., 
who died in 1872. He was again married, in 1875, to Mrs. Mary 
B. Conant, of Dedham, Mass. 

After an illness of many months, he died, April 17, 1877, at the 
age of sixty-four years. 

Horace Maynard, the eminent statesman and lawyer, was born 
in Westborough August 30, 1814. He was a lineal descendant of 
two famous Puritans, — Sir John Maynard on his father's side, and 
the Rev. John Cotton on his mother's. As a boy he was studious 
and ambitious. In 1838, having worked his own way, he graduated 
at Amherst College with the highest honors. He removed to 
Knoxville, Tenn., where from 1839 to J ^43 ne was instructor in 
East Tennessee College. In the latter year he was chosen pro- 
fessor of mathematics and natural history. During this period he 
was studying law, and in 1844 was admitted to the bar. His 
practice soon became large and lucrative. 



442 APPENDIX. 

Mr. Maynard's political career began in 1852, when he was a del- 
egate to the National Whig Convention at Baltimore. In the follow- 
ing year he was the Whig candidate for Congress, but was defeated. 
He carried his district, however, in 1857, and remained in Congress 
until 1863. All his speeches, votes, and efforts were in favor of 
preserving the Union. In the great discussion on the state of the 
country in 1860-61, Mr. Maynard took an active part. He occu- 
pied middle ground between the anti-slavery men of the North and 
the secessionists of the South. There was no reason, in his view, 
why the States should not remain half slave and half free. When 
war began he at once became an ardent supporter of the Union 
cause, and suffered both loss of property and exile from his State 
for his loyalty. At the close of the session of 1863, there being 
no provision for the election of Congressmen in Tennessee, Mr. 
Maynard accepted the position of Attorney-General under Andrew 
Johnson, the military governor of the State. When Mr. Johnson, 
on the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, succeeded to the Presidency, 
he offered Mr. Maynard several important positions ; but the latter 
preferred a seat in Congress, where he served from 1866 to 1875. 
In March of the latter year President Grant appointed him minis- 
ter to Turkey, and he proved, it is said, to be one of the most 
competent of American representatives abroad. He resigned in 
1880, and in August entered President Hayes's cabinet as Post- 
master-General, serving until March, 1881. His death, resulting 
from heart-disease, occurred May 3, 1882. 

Mr. Maynard was married, August 30, 1840, to Miss Laura Ann 
Washburn, daughter of the Rev. Azel Washburn, of Royalston, Vt. 
They had seven children, three of whom died in infancy. The 
eldest, Edward Maynard, after serving in the army throughout the 
war, died in July, 1868, while U. S. Consul at Turk's Islands. 
The remaining three, Washburn Maynard, Lieut. -Commander U. S. 
Navy, James Maynard, and Mrs. Ann Mary M. Kidder, reside 
in Washington, D. C. 

William Curtis. For some thirty years before his death, in 
1887, Dr. William Curtis was prominent in Westborough both as 
a physician and as a public-spirited citizen. He was the son of 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 443 

Jonathan and Lucy (Mason) Curtis, of Sturbridge, Mass., where 
he was born June 29, 18 16. During his boyhood he resided in 
Sturbridge with his parents, and attended the public schools. He 
was afterwards a pupil at Monson Academy. Having selected the 
medical profession for his life-work, he studied with Dr. Myrick, of 
West Brookfield, and afterwards began practice in that town. At 
the age of twenty-five he was married to Charlotte M., daughter 
of Col. Nymphas Pratt, of Shrewsbury. Mrs. Curtis died in 1885. 
The doctor, with his wife, came to Westborough about 1854, and 
here he became well known as a successful physician ,and a liberal 
public-spirited citizen. He held many town offices. In religious 
belief the doctor was a Unitarian ; in politics, a man of indepen- 
dent views. As a man he was extremely genial and open-hearted. 
He was a member of many societies and interested in many direc- 
tions. His liberality will long be remembered by the recipients of 
his kindness, and the citizens of Westborough have cause for grati- 
tude for the gateways which he provided at Pine Grove and St. 
Luke's Cemetery, and for the legacy of $14,000, — the remainder 
of his estate, — which he left to trustees for the benefit of the 
public library. 

Benjamin B. Nourse was born in Berlin, Mass., March 31, 1816. 
His parents were Theophilus and Lois Nourse. 

In 1825, soon after his father's death, Mr. Nourse came to 
Westborough, and lived for nearly five years in the family of 
the late Dea. Elmer Brigham. The next two years he lived in 
Marlborough. Then, having returned to Westborough, he was ap- 
prenticed to the late Jonas Longley to learn the carpenter's trade. 
Mr. Nourse followed this business until i860. In that year he 
began on a small scale the manufacture of plant-trellises ; this 
business he carried on until a year ago. 

Mr. Nourse has been prominent in town affairs, having served 
on the board of selectmen more years than any of his townsmen 
in this generation, and having filled many other town offices. 

In politics he has been a Democrat since the dissolution of the 
old Whig party. For many years he was an acknowledged leader 
of the party in this town. 



444 APPENDIX. 

In 1875 Governor Gaston appointed Mr. Nourse a special 
justice of the First District Court of Eastern Worcester. 

In religion, Mr. Nourse is a Unitarian. He served as 
one of the building committee in the erection of the present 
church in 1849. Mr. Nourse was married in 1843 t0 Mary 
Elizabeth, daughter of the late Jonas and Susan Longley. 
Four children have been born to them, — Henry B., Frank L., 
Walter R, and Emma S. Nourse. Only the two latter are now 
living. 

George B. Brigham, who has been a leading boot and shoe 
manufacturer in Westborough during the past fifty years, was born 
in this town October 4, 18 18. His father, George B. Brigham, 
was a native of Waterford, Me., whither a portion of the family 
had emigrated from Westborough. His mother was Nellie (Fay) 
Brigham. 

Mr. Brigham remained with his parents until he was nine years 
old, when he went to live with Elijah Forbes on the farm near 
the reservoir, now owned by the town. At the age of sixteen 
he became a member of David Warren's family. Mr. Brigham 
took advantage of such educational advantages as were then 
afforded. He attended the public schools nine or ten weeks 
in the year, and at the age of eighteen attended the Worcester 
Manual Labor School. 

His experience in the boot and shoe business began in 1837, 
when — a youth of nineteen — he began to superintend Thomas 
Stone's factory. Two years later he formed a partnership with 
Moses Newton, with whom he manufactured during the succeeding 
four years. In 1843 he entered the grocery and produce busi- 
ness in Boston, with Silas O. Brigham, of Boston, and Elijah 
Morse, of Westborough, but at the end of a year sold out to his 
partners. During the next five years Mr. Brigham resided in 
Sherborn and in Westborough, dividing the time between farming 
and trading. From 1849 to 1857 he superintended Daniel F. 
Newton's factory, and also, in company with John H. Pierce, car- 
ried on the wood and lumber business. In 1858 Mr. Brigham 
began to manufacture boots and shoes on his own account, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 445 

with his sons, John L. and Horace E. Brigham, still continues the 
business. 

Mr. Brigham has been a member of the Baptist Church since he 
was seventeen years old. In politics he is a strong Republican. 
He has held various town offices, and in 1887 represented this 
district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 

Mr. Brigham has been twice married. His first wife, to whom 
he was married April 10, 1844, was Caroline Jones Leland, of Sher- 
born, the daughter of John Leland and Sally (Bickford) Leland. 
She died February 14, 1858. On January 9, 1859, Mr. Brigham 
married his present wife, Mary Phipps Homer, the daughter of 
Michael Homer and Susan (Phipps) Homer, of Hopkinton. Mr. 
Brigham had six children by his first wife, — Ella Lucile, Ather- 
ton Fontenelle, Carrie Georgiana (Barr), John Leland, George 
Bickford, and Bertram Fay Brigham ; and five by his second wife, 
— Frank Fontenelle, Horace Eugene, Lillie Josephine, Marion 
Homer, and Ernest Phipps Brigham. 

Samuel M. Griggs. Few faces have been more familiar to 
the people of Westborough for the last thirty years than that of 
Mr. Griggs, and few lives have been as closely interwoven with the 
later history of the town. As the head of the firm of S. M. Griggs 
& Co., as the town-clerk, as one of the leaders of the Evan- 
gelical church and society, and at two different periods the repre- 
sentative of the district in the State Legislature, he moved, always 
quietly and unassumingly, in the sight of all the people, known 
and respected by all. He was born in Grafton, Vt, September 
10, 1822. When he was only two years old his parents removed 
to Berlin, Mass., where his childhood was passed. He obtained his 
education there and at Leicester Academy, and at the age of six- 
teen came to Westborough as a clerk in the stora of Fayerweather 
& Leach. Here he showed qualities which in a few years admitted 
him to the firm, where he remained until he set up business for 
himself, founding the house which still bears his name. 

On July 6, 1855, he was elected town-clerk, and held the office 
thenceforward, in spite of all whirlings of the political machine, for 
thirty-one years. In this position he was not merely an efficient 



446 APBENDIX. 

officer ; the town records during its whole history were mastered 
by him, and he acquired a rare familiarity with the past, with the 
precedents of town action, and with historic places and men. 
Always a reader and a student, he had an acquaintance with 
books and a general information which made him the peer of 
more liberally educated men, and an intelligent leader and guide. 
He was always closely connected with the welfare of the public 
library, not merely as trustee, but as a warm friend of its best 
interests. As a business man he was unremitting in his attention 
and fidelity, and was always connected, in one way or another, 
with both the banks. 

In local and district politics he was always a leader. His famil- 
iarity with the political history of the State and nation was excep- 
tional, and he had a keen insight into men and motives, with a 
shrewd sense in debated questions which made him a good guide. 
He was not an orator, and made no speeches ; but affairs moved 
more safely when his hand was on the helm. In 1862 and 1863 
he was the town's representative in the State Legislature, and ten 
years later sat for the corresponding term in the senate. While 
there he was appointed State Treasurer of the Lyman Fund for 
the Reform School, — an office which he retained some years. 

His connection with the Evangelical Church dates from 1841, 
when, a young man of nineteen, he brought to it a letter of transfer. 
From that time for more than forty-five years he was a stanch 
supporter of it. He was not a talker in the religious sphere any 
more than in civil affairs ; but he had a strong interest in the 
church and in the kingdom of God, and his presence and influence 
were always ready. He had a keen judgment of men, and clear 
convictions as to religious theories and methods. His common- 
sense, mingled with a ready tact, proved the solvent of many a 
difficulty. He furnished an element which every church needs, 
and which is not always estimated at its true value until it is 
missed. 

He married in 1848 Henrietta A., daughter of Otis Brigham, 
who with his only daughter, the wife of Henry S. Knight, M. D., 
of Worcester, survives him. He died November 7, 1886. His 
death carried sadness to the whole community. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 447 

Christopher Whitney was a prominent business man in West- 
borough for nearly forty years before his death, which occurred 
March 2, 1889. 

He was born June 16, 1827, at Halifax, Vt. His parents were 
Alpheus and Sarah (Stowe) Whitney. On coming to Westborough 
in 185 1, Mr. Whitney first engaged in the bakery, flour, and grain 
business, which he continued for seventeen years. He afterwards 
was engaged in the lumber business at Natick for a year, and then 
began the same business in Westborough. He was successful in 
this, as in his other business projects, and built up a large and 
lucrative trade. His son-in-law, Frank V. Bartlett, and George 
L. Smith still continue the business under the firm-name of C. 
Whitney & Co. 

In 1882 Mr. Whitney built the "Whitney House," which stands 
as a monument to both his enterprise and his public spirit. 

Through his' various undertakings Mr. Whitney amassed consid- 
erable property, — the result of honest, intelligent, and energetic 
business management. He was a generous, philanthropic man in 
a quiet, unassuming way, and many shared in his prosperity. 

In 1 85 1 Mr. Whitney was married to Abbie Morse Thomson, 
of Bellingham, Mass. They had three children, — Frank C, Abbie 
M., wife of Frank V. Bartlett, and Nellie E., wife of George H. 
Woodman. 

William R. Gould, son of Rufus and Mary (Henry) Gould, 
was born in New Braintree, Mass., April 20, 1832, where he lived 
until he was about twelve years old. At that time his parents 
removed to Oakham, where Mr. Gould remained until 1854. In 
that year or a little later he, with several ambitious school friends, 
went to the gold mines of northern California. He accumulated 
considerable money, and removed to San Francisco. 

After six years and a half in California, Mr. Gould returned to 
Massachusetts for a visit. 

In i860 he came to Westborough, and during two or three 
years carried on the retail boot and shoe business in this town. 
He then bought out the dry-goods store of Mr. Penniman and 
formed a partnership with Henry Chamberlain, of Southborough. 



448 APPENDIX. 

Later he was in the hardware business. During all these years he 
had been seeking an opportunity to go into manufacturing, which 
occurred in April, 1879, when he formed a partnership with George 
B. and John L. Brigham for the manufacture of boots and shoes, 
under the firm name of Brigham, Gould, & Co. In 1882 the 
partnership was dissolved, whereupon Mr. Gould, with Melvin H. 
Walker, formed the firm of Gould & Walker. Mr. Gould remained 
in the business until shortly before his death, which occurred March 
25, 1890. 

Mr. Gould held the town offices of selectman, overseer of the 
poor, and water-commissioner. For a number of years he was 
a director of the First National Bank and a trustee of the Savings 
Bank. 

In 1866 Mr. Gould was married to Sarah, daughter of John A. 
Fayerweather. 

Edwin Bayard Harvey, son of Eben and Rozella (Winslow) 
Harvey, was born in Deerfield, Rockingham County, N. H., April 
4, 1834. 

He received his early education in the common schools. Sub- 
sequently he attended the Military Institute, Pembroke, N. H., 
and the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, Northfield, N. H. 
In 1857 he was graduated from the Wesleyan University, Middle- 
town, Conn. The year following he taught in Poultney Academy, 
Poultney, Vt., and in i860 became principal of Macedon Acad- 
emy, Macedon, N. Y. This position he resigned after two years 
service in order to accept the professorship of natural science in 
Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham. In 1864 he entered the Harvard 
Medical School. He received his degree in 1866, and immediately 
began practice in Westborough. Here he has since resided. 

In 1872 Dr. Harvey visited several of the principal universities 
in Europe in the study of his profession. He is widely known 
as a skilful practitioner, has a large consultation practice, and is 
recognized as the leading surgeon in this locality. For fifteen 
years he has been councillor of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
and has held the presidency and other offices in the Worcester 
District Medical Society. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 449 

For nearly twenty years Dr. Harvey was a member of the 
School Committee in Westborough, and for two years was super- 
intendent of schools. He is president of the Board of Trustees 
of the public library, and a trustee of the Westborough Savings 
Bank. 

In 1873 he was appointed trustee of the State Reform School, 
and was reappointed in 1876, serving six years. In 1884 and 
1885 he represented this district in the Legislature. He served 
on the committee on Public Charitable Institutions, and during his 
second term was chairman. During his first year in the Legis- 
lature he introduced the free text-book bill, and it was largely 
through his efforts that the bill became law. In both State and 
local politics he has taken an active interest. 

Dr. Harvey was married in Concord, N. H., in i860, to Abby, 
daughter of Eldad and Sarah E. (Fellows) Tenney. 

Arthur G. Biscoe. Among those who have served the town 
in a public capacity as well as honored it by the record of a useful 
and manly life, it is a pleasure to mention the name of Arthur G. 
Biscoe, whose early death deepened the affection felt for him by 
the community. 

He was the son of the Rev. Thomas C. Biscoe, — for many 
years pastor of the Congregational Church at Grafton, and still 
living at Holliston, — and was born in Grafton on the 26th of May, 
1842. He entered Amherst College at the age of sixteen, graduating 
in the class of 1862. The war was at that time in its second year, 
and the call of the nation sounded loudly in the hearts of its young 
men. Mr. Biscoe enlisted soon after graduation, and served nine 
months in Co. G., 51st Massachusetts Regiment. On his return he 
studied law in the office of William F. Slocum in Grafton, and in 
1864 was admitted to the Bar of Worcester County. He began 
practice at once in Westborough, and here spent the remainder 
of his life. In 1867 he was married to Helen, daughter of Hon. 
A. M. Bigelow, of Grafton. 

Mr. Biscoe very speedily identified himself with the town in all 
its best interests, and came to be one of the leaders of public 
opinion, trusted alike for his ability and his probity. He soon 



450 APPENDIX. 

found himself wanted in positions of trust, and filled various town 
offices, as well as other posts of importance in business and 
banking. Remarkably quick in insight and action, he made one of 
the most efficient of moderators at town-meetings and other gather- 
ings. In 1 87 1 he was chosen representative from the district, 
and from 1877 to 1879 was a member of the Republican State 
Central Committee. 

In his profession he won the confidence of his associates by 
the keenness of his penetration and the unflinching honesty and 
integrity of his conduct of cases. He was intensely active in 
professional work, as in everything he undertook ; but he never 
sought to gain an end against his best convictions, and always 
strove to persuade clients to a private settlement rather than a 
public trial, where it was possible. 

A sincere and manly Christian, Mr. Biscoe was always actively 
associated with the Evangelical Church and society. He was 
not afraid of his own convictions, and sometimes rendered high 
service by their utterance ; while his modesty and courtesy saved 
him from the appearance of partisanship. To those who knew 
him intimately, there was a charm in his playful humor, his quick 
flashes of wit, and his quiet but strong affection, which made his 
companionship a delight. There was withal an unflinching loyalty 
to truth and a soldierly firmness which made it impossible to trifle 
with his deeper feelings. The iron qualities beneath the surface of 
his gentler aspect came out in full development in the long struggle 
with disease which at last overtook him, and in the heroic un- 
selfishness of his last days. He died at Lynn, whither he had 
gone for the benefit of the sea air, on the 28th of August, 1879, 
at the early age of thirty-seven, leaving his wife and two sons. The 
whole community mourned for him. The Grand Army Post 
No. 80, Department of Massachusetts, organized here June 18, 
1 88 1, was named after him. He was only beginning a career of 
great usefulness in town and county and State ; but he had lived 
long enough to exercise great and healthy influence on the town 
life in the present generation. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 45 I 

Henry K. Taft was vice-president of the H. O. Bernard Man- 
ufacturing Company, and general manager of the manufacturing 
part of the business. He was born in Upton Nov. 18, 1842, and 
died of pneumonia at his home in Westborough May 29, 1887. 

At an early age Mr. Taft began work in the straw-shop at Upton, 
and afterwards followed the same occupation in Boston. He came 
to Westborough in 1867, and took charge of the blocking-room of 
George N. Smalley's factory. A year later he was transferred to 
the stock-room ; and when the firm of H. O. Bernard & Co. — the 
National Straw Works — was established, he retained the same 
position. In 1875 ne became a member of the firm. When the 
H. O. Bernard Manufacturing Company was incorporated, in 1885, 
Mr. Taft became vice-president and general manager of the fac- 
tory. He died two years later. Mr. Taft was a man of unusual 
executive ability, and from long experience possessed an intimate 
knowledge of the business in which he was engaged. In the man- 
agement of the factory and of the employees, numbering at times 
nearly a thousand, he showed rare tact and judgment. 

Mr. Taft was married in 1869 to Annie E. Clarke, of Walpole, 
who, with one son, George H. Taft, survives him. 

William Trowbridge Forbes, born in Westborough May 24, 
1850, is the son of Ephraim Trowbridge and Catharine (White) 
Forbes. His grandfather, Jonathan Forbes, was the fourth Jona- 
than in descent from Dea. Jonathan Forbes, who built a saw-mill 
at the outlet of the town reservoir, and was annexed with others 
from Sutton in 1728. He attended the public schools until sixteen 
years old, and completed his preparation for college at the classical 
school of the Aliens at West Newton and at the private school of 
Rev. James Tufts, of Monson. He graduated from Amherst Col- 
lege in 1 87 1, where he took the first prize in mathematics in his 
sophomore year, a prize scholarship in German in his junior year, 
was one of the editors of the " Amherst Student," a member of 
the senior crew in the regatta of 1870, and class historian. 

In 1 87 1 he was appointed instructor in mathematics at Robert 
College, Constantinople, where he remained three years. With 
the president of the college, Rev. George Washburn, D.D., he 



452 APPENDIX. 

made a geological survey of the country in that vicinity, collecting 
about two thousand fossils, of which many were new varieties, and 
some were exhibited at the Vienna Exposition. On returning 
to this country in 1874 he studied law with the firm of Bacon, 
Hopkins, & Bacon, of Worcester, and was appointed standing 
justice of the First District Court of Eastern Worcester in 1875, 
— a position which he filled for about three years. 

He resigned in 1879, and practised law in Westborough until 
appointed judge of the courts of Probate and Insolvency for this 
county, which position he now holds. 

In 188 1 and 1882 he was a member of the Legislature, serving 
on the committees on the liquor law, on probate and insolvency, 
and for the consideration of constitutional amendments. He rep- 
resented the second Worcester senatorial district in 1886 and 
1887, was chairman of the committees on education and on elec- 
tion laws, and a member of the committee on the judiciary. In 
1888 he introduced and secured the passage of Acts abolishing 
taxation for parish purposes, and one providing for the incorpora- 
tion of churches. He has served on the school committee six 
years, was selectman four years, and has held other town offices. 
He wrote a sketch of Westborough for the History of Worcester 
County, published in 1889. In 1884 he married Harriette Merri- 
field, daughter of William T. Merrifield, of Worcester. They have 
four children. 

Nathaniel Emmons Paine, who has been superintendent of 
the Westborough Insane Hospital since the institution was estab- 
lished, was born, July 14, 1853, at the home of his grandfather, 
Dr. John A. Paine, in New Hartford, Oneida County, N. Y. 
His father, Horace M. Paine, M. D., was a physician at Albany, 
N. Y. ; his mother, Charlotte (Mann) Paine, was a daughter of 
Salmon Mann, of Norfolk, Mass. 

Dr. Paine was a pupil at Albany Academy, and afterwards 
studied with Prof. Lewis Collins until he was admitted to Hamilton 
College in 1870. He graduated with high rank, and entered the 
Albany Medical College, — a department of Union University. 
His training at the medical school was supplemented by continu- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 453 

ous experience with his father. For a year after his graduation 
Dr. Paine studied in Germany, — chiefly at Vienna. Returning to 
America in 1877, ne accepted a position as assistant-physician at 
the Middletown (N. Y.) Homoeopathic Asylum for the Insane. 
He spent three years and a half at Middletown, when, in 1880, his 
health failed, and he was forced to seek its restoration in treatment 
and travel. In December, 1884, he was appointed superintendent 
of the Westborough Insane Hospital, and after visiting the institu- 
tions of other States came here in May, 1885. He was in con- 
stant attendance during the remodelling of the buildings, and 
furnished many valuable suggestions. Since the opening of the 
institution, in 1886, he has been busily absorbed in managing the 
interests committed to his charge. In the fall of 1887 the doctor 
was appointed lecturer on insanity in the Medical School of Boston 
University. 

Dr. Paine was married, June 5, 1879, to Harriet, the youngest 
daughter of the late William Gould, of Albany, N. Y. Dr. and 
Mrs. Paine have two children, — Alice and Nathaniel Emmons 
Paine, Jr. 



454 APPENDIX. 



II. 

LAND GRANTS. 
By WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE FORBES. 

THE territory included within the present limits of West- 
borough contains, according to the survey of Nahum Fisher 
made in the year 1837, 13,340 acres. If we trace back the suc- 
cessive owners of the farms and village lots which make up the 
town, to the time of its first settlement, we find two classes of pro- 
prietors. About a thousand acres was granted to individuals by 
the General Court in return for services rendered to the colony, 
and the rest was granted to companies of men who were called 
Proprietors, and who received from the colony most of the ter- 
ritory included in the five towns from which Westborough has 
been formed. 

The Indian title to the land was extinguished by the payment 
of small sums of money after King Philip's War. There was no 
Indian settlement of importance here, although there were three 
of Eliot's praying-towns north, east, and south of us. The south- 
erly part of the town, including all taken from Sutton and Upton, 
was claimed by an Indian named John Wampas, alias White. He 
resided for a while in Grafton (Hassanamisco), moved to Boston, 
became a sailor, and bought a house and lot on the east side of 
the Common, where Tremont Street now is. During his absence 
his enterprising wife, Anne Wampas, sold his house. On his return 
in 1677, m consideration of ^"20 he confirmed the sale. When in 
London he met Edward Pratt, of St. Paul's, Shadwell, a victualler, 
and deeded to him land between Mendon, Worcester, New Oxford, 
Sherborn, and Marlborough, and claimed to own in all fourteen 
miles square. His claims were not admitted by the General Court 
or the other Indians in the Nipmuck country. William Stoughton 
and Joseph Dudley, commissioners, gathered the Indian "clay- 
mers " at Cambridge, and with the assistance of Eliot purchased 



LAND GRANTS. 455 

one thousand square miles, principally in the southern part of this 
county, from Black James and sixty-five other Indians, and Waban 
and twenty-one others, for ^50 and some small presents. 

In 1684, the town of Marlborough paid ^"31 to twenty-five 
Indians, then living in Natick and Wamesit, for a deed of all the 
land included within its bounds. At a time when so many pro- 
minent white men "made their marks," it is noticeable that six 
Indians signed their names, including the two witnesses. 

The early settlers not only paid the Indians for this land to 
secure their good-will and stop their complaints, but were carry- 
ing out the repeated commands of the original patentees to the first 
settlers in the colony. So long as he remained friendly to the white 
settlers, the Indian's right to hunt, fish, and occupy his ancestral 
domain was recognized. In the first letter of instructions from 
the Governor and Deputy of the New England Company to the 
colonists who had already arrived in 1629, we find the following: 
" If any of the salvages pretend right of inheritance to all or any 
part of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to 
purchase their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intru- 
sion." The Indians living within the present limits of Massachu- 
setts were so few that most of the territory included in townships 
of from five to eight miles square were deeded by from one to 
five Indians. It is probable that there are more persons of Indian 
descent in this commonwealth now than when the Puritans first 
landed in Massachusetts Bay. 

MAYHEW GRANT. 

As early as 1643, Thomas Mayhew, a merchant from Southamp- 
ton, England, later a preacher with Eliot to the Indians, presented 
" a charge about a bridge by Watertown Mill ; " and the colony 
granted him three hundred acres of land without locating them. 
In 1666, Mayhew assigned this grant to the executors of Edward 
How, in part payment of his indebtedness to How's estate. 

June 18, 1708, a committee from the General Court found a strip 
of land north of the Sudbury, between the present westerly line of 
Ashland and Rocklawn Mills, which was so rocky and unattractive 
that no one had occupied it, although it was very near older settle- 



456 



APPENDIX. 



ments. The town of Marlborough formally disclaimed ownership, 
and prominent citizens of Framingham certified that it did not 
belong to their township. Even the Indians on Maguncook hill 
made no claim to it. The committee, however, laid this out as the 




THE ORIGINAL MARLBOROUGH, AND THE NEW TOWNS " SET OFF " 

FROM IT. 

Mayhew grant, and report that of this " Fiddleneck," of three hun- 
dred acres, some " was good, some bad, some pine and some oak 
land and some meadow in it." Later, the water-power developed 
by the falls of the Sudbury increased its value, and the manufactur- 



LAND GRANTS. 



457 



ing villages of Southville and Cordaville were built on this tract of 
land. Three years after this grant was laid out, Col. Joseph Buck- 
minster, of Framingham, lessee of the greater part of that town 
under the Danforth grants, claimed that the " Fiddleneck " belonged 




THE ORIGINAL CHAUNCY, AND SOME OF THE TERRITORY 
AFTERWARD ANNEXED. 

to Framingham. His claim was sustained by the General Court, 
and the Mayhew grant was re-located at Whitehall, in what is now 
Hopkinton, and near the pond of that name. So it came to 
pass that Westborough was bounded on the east by Framingham 



453 APPENDIX. 

until the year 1786, when the " Fiddleneck " was annexed to 
Southborough. 

John Belknap, of Westborough, lived near the disputed territory 
in 1 778, when he finally induced this town to choose a committee, 
to meet with Southborough and Marlborough, " to settle the line 
between Framingham and Westborough that Mr. John Belknap 
has been a contending about so long." 

It was not till fifty-seven years later that this controversy was 
finally settled by the General Court. Sixteen acres of the Fiddle- 
neck, probably including the Abner Prentiss mill-site, were annexed 
to Westborough. About a century and a half ago there was a mill 
at this point, and for ages before, the beavers had constructed dams 
across the Sudbury and its tributaries, — thus aiding in the construc- 
tion of a large area of what were designated on the first plan of 
Marlborough as " Seader Swamps." 

THE BOSWORTH GRANT. 

Edward Bosworth and family were brought to Boston from Eng- 
land at the expense of Henry Seawall. The General Court, finding 
them unable to repay the costs of their transportation, fixed the sums 
to be paid by each, including the son Benjamin, and the times of 
payment, and further ordered that the " fore-named parties shal be 
bound, one for another, for the payment of the said somes att the 
several dayes of payement." 1 

Benjamin Bosworth, like so many emigrants since, soon emerged 
from poverty and obscurity, and in 1658 we find the duty of warn- 
ing the freemen of Hull to vote on election-day resting upon him. 
The day arrives, Bosworth neglects to call the meeting, and is fined 
forty shillings. He appeals to the General Court to remit the fine ; 
and as the election in Hull was not so important then as now, and 
as he had to pay ten shillings for the entry of his petition, the fine 
was remitted. His brother Nathaniel becomes a deputy and 
magistrate to solemnize marriages in Hull, and Benjamin himself, 
in 1675, heads the list of petitioners who were granted the town- 
ship of Stow. 

In 1686 he is still basking in the favor of the court, and receives 
a grant of two hundred acres of land, which was laid out between 

1 Court Records, i. 152. 



LAND GRANTS. 459 

the old west line of Marlborough and " The Farms," which were 
later included in Shrewsbury. Bosworth moved from Stow to 
Boston, and sold these two hundred acres to Thomas Harris, vic- 
tualler, whose widow, Rebecca, sold it to Gershom Rice, of New 
London, Conn., planter. Gershom Rice was later one of the 
founders of the permanent settlement at Worcester. 

Sixteen years before Westborough was incorporated, Dea. Caleb 
Rice, of Marlborough, planter, bought it for £2\ ; and this Bos- 
worth grant thereafter became famous in early plans and records 
as the "Deacon Caleb Rice farm." The northern and larger por- 
tion of this tract of land became part of the new town of North- 
borough in 1766, while the southern part is at Boston Hill, in the 
northwesterly part of Westborough. The westerly line ran on the 
present Shrewsbury line two hundred rods southerly "towards a 
snake hill [now Boston Hill], ending at a black oak tree, thence 
25 north of east over the end of the rattle Snake bill, one hun- 
dred and sixty rods, ending at Marlburrough west line." 1 

EATON'S GRANT. 
Fay's or BrighanCs Farm. 

Gov. Theophilus Eaton, of Connecticut, founded the colony of 
New Haven in 1638. He was one of the original patentees of 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and landed in Boston in 1637. He 
had been a prominent merchant in England, and was agent of 
King James at the Court of Denmark. He advanced ^50 to 
the Massachusetts Colony, which had not been repaid at the time 
of his death. 

June 11, 1680, the General Court "judgeth it meet to grant 
to the heirs of that worthy gent", Theophilus Eaton, Esq., five 
hundred acres of land in any part of our jurisdiction free from 
former grants, and not prejudicing plantations." John Haynes sur- 
veyed and plotted the five hundred acres, and the grant was " con- 
firmed as laid out, provided that it exceed not fivety more than the 
five hundred granted them, and that the same be reduced to a 
square or rhomboyds, and doe not prejudice any former grants." 
A few months later, the plan and survey were confirmed to the 
heirs of Governor Eaton, although they described a tract of very 

1 Deed of Gershom to Caleb Rice, Feb 25, 1 701-1702. 



46O APPENDIX. 

irregular shape, its western extremity forming the north half of the 
part of Westborough now extending into Shrewsbury. 

About two years later, the Eaton heirs sold this farm to John 
Brigham, the surveyor, doctor, miller, and land speculator, Thomas 
Brigham his brother, and John and Samuel Fay, sons of their sister 
Mary, for ,£25, or just one half of what the colony owed the gov- 
ernor's heirs, not including interest. Each Brigham owned one 
third, and their nephews, the Fay brothers, one third together. 
The southeast corner of this farm was a little northeast of the 
house, on the Eli Whitney hill, now occupied by William H. John- 
son. From this point it extended a little south of west one hun- 
dred and eighty rods towards the F. J. Adams place. The stone 
wall on the west side of the Whitney pasture hill, which can be seen 
distinctly from the former home of the inventor of the cotton-gin, 
is described in old deeds as " Sutton line — ." The long lines of 
stone walls extending a little west of north towards the Assabet 
River are parallel to " Marlboro' old line," the most easterly of 
them being the former west line of Marlborough, which extended 
in the same course, a little easterly of Hockomocco pond, to the 
northwesterly part of Northborough. The east line of this farm 
passes near a spring used by the Fays and their successors which 
is southeast of the S. A. Howe house, where John Fay, the first 
town-clerk of Westborough, made his home. His brother Samuel 
erected his " mansion house " on the opposite side of West Main 
Street, near the North Grafton road. The two Fay farms are now 
owned by M. and J. E. Henry, who live in the Samuel Fay "man- 
sion." The " houses of the Fays " are indicated on the map of 
Chauncy and farms adjoining, before this town was incorporated. 

The third of the " Eaton Grant," next west of the Fays, was 
assigned to the heirs of Thomas Brigham, and remained in the 
Brigham family until the third Jonathan Forbes, who had married 
Moses Brigham's daughter, made it the Forbes homestead about 
a century and a quarter ago. 

The most westerly portion was taken by John Brigham, who 
soon sold it to his son-in-law, Oliver Ward. The latter erected 
the upper mill on the Assabet River, and sold the former farm to 
Joseph Grout. For more than a century it remained the Grout 
homestead, and is now owned by James McTaggart. The Assabet 



LAND GRANTS. 46 1 

meadows — to secure which the Eaton grant had been extended 
westerly in such irregular fashion — and the swamps were divided 
up at different times among the original owners and their succes- 
sors. If the present maps of the town are approximately correct, 
the surveyors must have made liberal allowance for the " sag of 
the chain," as this five-hundred-acre farm extends more than 
a quarter of a mile farther west than the distances in the grant 
indicate. 

BEERS'S GRANT. 

The south line of " Old Marlboro' " extended from the Sudbury 
River southwesterly on the present line between this town and Hop- 
kinton, and in the same course through the first road connecting the 
two streets to the town reservoir, nearly west of the Talbot or Dea- 
con Morse place, to a point a little southwest of the Eli Whitney 
house, and about forty rods southeasterly from the southeast corner 
of the Eaton grant. In early deeds of land near Piccadilly, this old 
south line of Marlborough is described as " Jack Straw's Old Line." 
When the General Court was considering the incorporation of West- 
borough, a plan was prepared. It did not indicate a hill within the 
proposed limits of the new town. Near the southwest boundary, 
however, are the words "Jack Straw's Hill at Sutton." Jack Straw 
brook is still well known by that name, and " Jackstraw pasture" 
annually appears in the printed report of the assessors. The road 
extending south from the house of N. M. Knowlton passes directly 
over Jack Straw's hill. A cellar and a well in the pasture on the left, 
and a cellar and an immense stone chimney on the right, indicate 
deserted farms, — the former once occupied by Daniel Forbes, and 
the latter by James Miller. The earliest Indian trail, known as 
the " Connecticut Road," trod by Oldham the hunter and Rev. 
Thomas Hooker, passed from Ashland through Hopkinton and 
Woodville, and near this hill to the Indian village in Grafton. Ac- 
cording to tradition, the home of the famous Indian Jack Straw was 
on the summit of this hill, which always bears his name in old deeds 
as well as in records before the coming of white settlers. His home 
was so well known to the early colonists in the Massachusetts Bay 
that a grant of three hundred acres of land to the relict and chil- 
dren of Captain Richard Beers was laid out, forty years before the 



462 APPENDIX. 

incorporation of Westborough, "at a place called Jack Straw's 
Hill." 

Capt. Richard Beers, in his petition for a grant of land, describes 
himself as one of the first planters of this colony, and says that he 
served this country in their wars against the Pequots twice. He 
had been many times employed as commissioner by the Gen- 
eral Court to settle disputes between towns, and locate land grants. 
He was appointed one of the prudential committee to manage 
the new settlement at Quansigamond, now Worcester. Although 
advanced in years, he pushed boldly to the front in King 
Philip's War, and fell, in 1675, in the disastrous fight at Deerfield. 
His widow and children had lost the land laid out for him near 
Dover, as it had been included in earlier grants. 

In 1692, John Brigham, by direction of the General Court, laid 
out another farm of three hundred acres at Jack Straw's Hill. 
Jack Straw must have been a long time dead. The only Indian of 
that name mentioned in contemporary works, so far as now discov- 
ered, accompanied a party of Connecticut Indians on their way to 
Boston to secure aid from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He had 
been in the employ of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose Roanoke colony 
had failed more than forty years before, and had lived in England, 
but " was now turned Indian again." Wahginnacut and his san- 
nops from Hartford could hardly secure a better interpreter or 
more influential advocate than this venerable Indian, living so near 
his path to Boston. 

In 1676, three Indians surnamed Jackstraw, of Hopkinton, were 
hanged in Boston for their share in the massacre of the Eames 
family in Framingham. 

This tract of land was sold by the Beers heirs to Samuel How, 
of Sudbury, for .£15, and he sold it in 1698 to Thomas Rice, 
of Marlborough, for ,£22. The latter owned all the land from 
his residence on East Main Street, near the present village of 
Westborough, to District Number Five School-house. This grant 
extended, on the south line of Marlborough, from near Moun'. 
Pleasant to a point on the west side of the Eli Whitney pasture hill. 
It also extended easterly so as to include the town reservoir. 



LAND GRANTS. 



463 



ELIJAH WHITNEY ANNEXATION. 

When most of the farms in the " Shoe " were annexed to West- 
borough, in 1762, Thomas Whitney, living on the North Grafton 
road, refused to be detached from Shrewsbury and was left behind 




MAP OF WESTBOROUGH IN 1 766. 

with his forty acres of land, entirely surrounded by Westborough. 
He lived in the house on the south side of the road next easterly 



464 APPENDIX. 

from the residence of B. A. Nourse. We do not know whether 
he loved Shrewsbury more, or Westborough less ; but the Gen- 
eral Court, with more regard for individual wishes than in town 
divisions of the present day, allowed his farm to remain a part 
of Shrewsbury. 

His son, Elijah Whitney, bought the farm, and in the year 1792 
petitioned for annexation to Westborough. He says that his farm 
of forty acres is situated in Shrewsbury, but " is incircled with land 
within the limits of the Town of Westborough, whereby your peti- 
tioner is subject to the Evil of passing through some part of West- 
borough in Order to appear in the Town of Shrewsbury, to attend 
his Municipal dutys in said Shrewsbury, as well as that of travelling 
as much as two miles further than it is to the centre of said West- 
borough. Y r petitioner therefore humbly prays the honorable 
Court to take under consideration his singular local situation and 
afford him relief, by setting off the afforesaid premises from Shrews- 
bury and annexing the same to said Town of Westborough, which 
would have taken place many years since, when the adjacent Farms 
were set off from Shrewsbury and annexed to Westborough, had 
not said Whitney's predecessor, then Resident on said Farm, Re- 
fused to be thus set of. ..." The selectmen of Westborough 
and Shrewsbury indorsed their assent, and this Shrewsbury oasis 
became part of Westborough, March 12, 1793. 



III. 



TOWN OFFICERS. 1 



THE following lists give the principal town-officers in West- 
borough from 1 71 7 to 1890 : — 



MODERATORS AT MARCH MEETINGS. 



John Fay, 1719, 1721. 

John Pratt, 1722. 

Thomas Ward, 1723. 

James Eager, 1725, 1742, 1743, 1749. 

Jacob Amsden, 1726. 

Thomas Rice, 1727. 

Eleazer Bowman, 1728. 

Edward Baker, 1729, 1740, 1744, 1745, 

1751-53. 1755-57. 1759-60- 
Oliver Ward, 1730. 
Joseph Wheeler, 1731. 
Simon Tainter, 1732. 
Josiah Newton, 1733, 1739, 1741, 

1746-48, 1750, 1754. 
Aaron Forbush, 1734. 
Abijah Bruce, 1735. 
Jonathan Whipple, 1736. 
Daniel Warren, 1737, 1738. 
Jonathan Livermore, 1758, 1764. 
Bezaleal Eager, 1761. 
Francis Whipple, 1762, 1763, 1766, 

1768, 1770. 
Phinehas Hardy, 1765, 1767, 1769. 
Jonathan Bond, 1771-73, 1777. 
George Andrews, 1774-76, 1778, 1784. 
Joseph Baker, 1779, 1780, 1785-88. 
-Nathan Fisher, 1781. 
James Hawes, 1782. 
Abijah Gale, 1783, 1792. 
Elijah Brigham, 1789-91, 1793-96, 

1798, 1799. 



Daniel Chamberlain, 1797, 1802, 1803, 

1805, 1806, 1808, 1809, 1811-14. 
Andrew Peters, 1800, 1801, 1804. 
Charles Fisher, 1807. 
Solomon Fay, 1810. 
Asaph Warren, 1815-17, 1823. 
Jonathan Forbush, 1818, 1821, 1822, 

1825. 
Phinehas Gleason, 1819. 
Lovett Peters, 1820, 1824, 1838, 1839. 
Joel Parker, 1826, 1829, 1834. 
Otis Brigham, 1827, 1828, 1830-33, 

1836, 1843. 
Joseph Lathrop, 1835. 
George Denny, 1837, 1840, 1841, 1850. 
Curtis Beeman, 1852. 
Elmer Brigham, 1844. 
S. Taylor Fay, 1845, 1849. 
Jonas Longley, 1846, 1847. 
Daniel F. Newton, 1848, 1853, 1856, 

1857, 1859, 1861-65, 1867, 1868, 

1870-73. 
Ethan Bullard, 1851, 1852, 1854. 
Benjamin Boynton, 1855, 1858. 
Timothy A. Smith, i860. 
John W. Brigham, 1866. 
John A. Fayerweather, 1867, 1877. 
Arthur G. Biscoe, 1874-76, 1878. 
Sherman Converse, 1879. 
William T. Forbes, 1880-88, 1890. 
Louis E. Denfeld, 1889. 



1 Where two dates are connected by a hyphen (as 1722-27) both years are included in the 
term of service. 



466 



APPENDIX. 



SELECTMEN. 1 



Thomas Rice, Jan. 5 to March 3, 

1718; 1727. 
John Fay, Jan. 5 to March 3, 1718; 

1718-21, 1723, 1725-27, 1732-34, 

1736. 
Simeon Hayward, Jan. 5 to March 

3. I7i8. 
James Bradish, 1718. 
Thomas Ward, 1718, 1721, 1722. 
Thomas Forbush, 1718. 
Thomas Newton, 17 18, 17 19, 1722, 

1725, 1729. 
Edmund Rice, 17 19, 1722. 
Daniel Maynard, 1720, 1725, 1728. 
Oliver Ward, 1720, 1723, 1727, 1729, 

1733- 
Isaac Tomblin, 1720, 1727. 
John Pratt, 1722. 
Daniel Brigham, 1722, 1728. 
Samuel Forbush, 1723. 
Josiah Newton, 1723, 1739-41, 1743- 

47. 1749, i75 2 -54- 
Samuel Robinson, 1723. 
Daniel Brigham, 1725. 
Daniel Warren, 1725, 1728, 1731-33, 

1735. 1737-39- 1743-48. 
Charles Rice, 1726. 
James Eager, 1726, 1728, 1730, 1732- 

36, 1738, 1740-43. I748-54- 
Joseph Wheeler, 1726, 1729, 1737, 

1745, 1746. 
Edward Baker, 1726, 1730, 1734-38, 

1740-42, 1744, 1749. i75 r -54. 1756, 
1757. 1759. 1760. 
Thomas Forbush, Jr., 1727, 1728, 

1730-33. 1735. 1738, 1739. I743-5 1 . 

1755- 
Jonathan Forbush, 1729, 1734. 
Eleazer Beeman, 1729. 



John Maynard, 1730, 1734, 1736, 1737, 

1743. 1744, 1748, 1750, 1755. l 7S& 
James Ball, 1730, 1740, 1749. 
David Brigham, 1731, 1737. 
William Halloway, 1731, 1735, T 739. 

1741, 1742, 1748, 1751, 1753, 1759- 
Jacob Amsden, 1731, 1739. 
David Maynard, 1732, 1767. 
Jonathan Whipple, 1735. 
Charles Rice, 1735. 
Joseph Grout, 1736. 
James Miller, 1738, 1742. 
Nathaniel Whitney, 1739-42, 1751. 
Jonah Rice, 1745, 1750, 1757, 1758. 
Nathan Ball, 1746. 
Jacob Rice, 1747, 1756, 1757, 1761-63. 
Jonathan Livermore, 1750, 1755, 1758, 

1764. 
Bezaleal Eager, 1752, 1755, 1756, 

1760-62, 1765. 
Francis Whipple, 1752-58, 1762, 1763, 

1765, 1770. 
Samuel Wood, 1754, 1759, 1760. 
Daniel Forbush, 1757, 1758. 
Phinehas Hardy, 1758, 1763, 1765, 

1770. 
Benjamin Fay, 1759, 1760, 1769, 1774, 

1777, 1786, 1789, 1790, 1790-92. 
Jonathan Bond, 1759-64, 1766-75. 
Stephen Maynard, 1761, 1762, 1768- 

73, 1781, 1782. 
Ebenezer Maynard, 1761, 1766, 1768, 

1770, 1772-74, 1778, 1780. 
Levi Brigham, 1763. 
Benjamin Wood, 1764-67. 
Timothy Fay, 1764, 1765. 
Jonas Brigham, 1764, 1766-69, 1771, 

1772, 1775-77- 
Ebenezer Chamberlain, 1766. 



1 It was the custom from 1717 to 1820 to choose five selectmen each year ; but from 1820 to 
1890 — with the exception of the years 1822-26, 1828-33, 1836, 1851, and 1858 — it has been the 
custom to chose three. In earlier years the selectmen attended to many duties now performed 
by the overseers of the poor and other boards. 




Q & k^M>W/ 



TOWN OFFICERS. 



467 



Zeduthun Fay, 1767. 

Joseph Baker, 1768. 

Jonathan Fay, 1769. 

Phinehas Maynard, 1771. 

Moses Wheelock, 1771. 

Timothy Warren, 1772, 17S0. 

Solomon Baker, 1773-76. 

Samuel Forbush, 1773, 1774, 1787, 

1788, 1791, 1792. 

James Hawes, 1775-77, 1782, 1783, 

1786. 
George Andrews, 1775-77. 
Thomas Bond, 1776, 1777. 
Jonathan Grout, 1778. 
Joseph Harrington, 1778, 1779, 1782- 

85, 1787, 1788. 
Barnabas Newton, 1778-81. 
Abijah Gale, 1778-80. 
Seth Morse, 1779, 1781-92. 
Edmund Brigham, 1779, 1787, 1788, 

1791-93- 
Eli Whitney, 1780, 1781, 1785, 1786, 

1789, 1 794-1 800. 
Aaron Warren, 1781-83. 
Phinehas Gleason, 1783, 1784, 1787, 

1788. 
Daniel Chamberlain, 1784, 1789, 1790, 

1793-1801, 1805, 1807-10, 1815, 

1836. 
Joseph Green, Jr., 1784, 1785. 
Elijah Brigham, 1785, 1789-95. 
Antipas Brigham, 1790. 
Nathan Fisher, 1793-1806, 1819. 
Simeon Bellows, 1793-1800. 
Thomas Morse, 1796- 1800. 
Jonathan Forbes, 1801, 1802, 1809, 

18 1 5-1 8. 
Andrew Peters, 1801, 1803, 1804. 
Samuel Fisher, 1S01-4, 1S09. 
David Fay, 1802-4. 
Rufus Forbush, 1802, 1S03. 
Phinehas Forbes, 1S04. 
John Sanborn, 1805-8, 1810. 
Joshua Mellen, 1805-11= 
Solomon Fay, 1805-14. 
Isaac Forbush, 1S06. 



Thomas Andrews, 1807, 1808. 
Isaac Ruggles, 1810-12, 1814. 
Joseph Brigham, 181 1, 1812, 1S14. 
Abner Warren, 181 1, 1812, 1814, 

181 5. 
Daniel Bellows, 1812, 1814. 
Moses Grout, 1813, 1815. 
Asaph Warren, 1813, 1817, 1820-23, 

1826, 1827. 
Benjamin Nourse, 1813. 
Luther Maynard, 181 5, 1816. 
Joseph Nichols, 1S16. 
Benjamin Fay, Jr., 1813, 1816-19. 
Samuel Forbush, Jr.,1816-19. 
Samuel Grout, 1818, 1819. 
Silas Wesson, 1818-24, x 826, 1827. 
Elijah Corbett, 1820, 1821. 
John Wadsworth, 1822-24. 
Martin Bullard, 1822-24, 1826, 1827, 

1832. 
David P. Mann, 1822, 1823, 1825, 

1833-36- 
Jesse Woods, 1824, 1825, 1827-31. 
Daniel Fay, 1824. 
Lovett Peters, 1825. 
Otis Brigham, 1825, 1828, 1832. 
John Warren, Jr., 1825. 
Nahum Fisher, 1827-31, 1833, 1834. 
Phinehas Gleason, 1828-31. 
Daniel Holbrook, Jr., 1828-31, 1833- 

35- 
Samuel Harrington, 1S29, 1831. 
Abijah Stone, 1832, 1837. 
Joshua N. Mellen, 1832. 
Gardner Cloyes, 1835, 1836. 
Elmer Brigham, 1836, 1841. 
Abijah Wood, 1836. 
Curtis Beeman, 1837, 1854. 
Nathaniel E. Fisher, 1837-41. 
Lyman Belknap, 1838-40, 1842, 1843, 

1850 
Josiah Fay, 1838. 
Josiah Brigham, 1839, 1840. 
Moses G. Maynard, 1S41-45. 
Jabez G. Fisher, 1842. 
Hartwell Bullard, 1843, I $44- 



468 



APPENDIX. 



Albert J. Burnap, 1844, 1851-53. 
John A. Fayerweather, 1845-47, 1867 
Lawson Harrington, 1845-48. 
Charles P. Rice, 1846-50, 1856, 1857, 

1869-71, 1876. 
Daniel F. Newton, 1848, 1849, 1854, 

1868, 1872-74. 
Edwin Billiard, 1849-51, 1863-65, 

1870, 1871, 1876. 
Otis Newton, 1851, 1852, 1858. 
Lowell Belknap, 1851. 
Ethan Bullard, 1851-53. 
Baxter Forbes, 1853, 1855, 1863. 
Lowell Forbush, 1854. 
Benjamin Boynton, 1855. 
Joseph W. Forbes, 1855. 
Joel Forbush, 1856, 1857. 
Samuel Chamberlain, 1856, 1857, 

1877, 1878. 
Noah Kimball, 1858. 
Timothy F. Hastings 2d, 1858, 1859. 
Anson Warren, 1858, 1859. 
Greenleaf C. Sanborn, 1S58-62, 1865, 

1866. 
Benjamin B. Nourse, 1860-62, 1866, 

1868, 1880-85. 



Silas B. Howe, 1860-62. 
George H. Raymond, 1863-65. 
George W. Parker, 1864. 
George Forbes, 1866. 
William M. Child, 1867, 1872-75. 
Charles H. Pierce, 1867, 1869. 
Charles P. Winslow, 1868, 1869. 
Henry A. Burnap, 1870. 
J. Brainard Putnam, 187 1. 
B. Alden Nourse, 1872-75. 
William Curtis, 1875-79. 
William R. Gould, 1877, 1878. 
William M. Blake, 1879. 
Israel H. Bullard, 1879. 
Reuben Boynton, 1880-82. 
William T. Forbes, 1880-82, 1887. 
Alden L. Boynton, 1883-85. 
Fred G. Harrington, 1883-85. 
Samuel M. Griggs, 1886. 
Harding Allen, 1886-90. 
Thomas H. Reilly, 1S86-89. 
Joshua E. Beeman, 1888, 1889. 
John E. Henry, 1890. 
Boners C. Hathaway, 1890. 



TOWN CLERKS. 



John Fay, 1718-27. 

Thomas Forbush, Jr., 1728-32, 1738, 

1742-51- 
Edward Baker, 1733-37. I739-4 1 - 
Francis Whipple, 1752-58, 1765, 

1770. 
Samuel Wood, 1759. 
Jonathan Bond, 1760-64, 1766, 1768, 

1769, 1773-75- 
Zebulun Rice, 1767. 
Moses Wheelock, 1771, 1772, 1778- 

82, 1786-95. 
James Hawes, 1776, 1777, 1783,1784. 



Elijah Brigham, 1785. 
Nathan Fisher, 1795-1814. 
Daniel Bellows, 181 5-17, 1819-22. 
Asaph Warren, 1818. 
Phinehas Gleason, 1823-34, 1837. 
Nahum Fisher, 1836, 1838-41. 
Elijah M. Phillips, 1842-47. 
Otis Newton, 1848, 1849. 
Jabez G. Fisher, 1850. 
Hannibal S. Aldrich, 1851-54. 
Samuel M. Griggs, 1856-86. 
Frank W. Bullard, 1887-89. 
Henry L. Chase, 1890- 



TOWN OFFICERS. 



469 



TOWN TREASURERS. 



Thomas Rice, 1718. 

Edmund Rice, 1719. 

James Bradish, 1720. 

Thomas Forbush, 1721. 

John Fay, 1722. 

Edward Baker, 1728-32. 

Seth Rice, 1733, 1738, 1740, 1741. 

Thomas Forbush, 1734, 1737. 

Josiah Newton, 1735, 1736,1748, 1750, 

I75 2 » J 753- 
Abner Newton, 1739, 1746, 1747. 
Benjamin Fay, 1742, 1743, 1766-68. 
Francis Whipple, 1744. 
Ebenezer Maynard, 1745. 
Stephen Maynard, 1749. 
Jacob Rice, 1754-58. 
Benjamin Wood, 1759-64. 
Timothy Fay, 1765. 
Seth Morse, 1769-77. 
Eli Whitney, 1778. 



Barnabas Newton, 1779-81. 
George Andrews, 1782, 1786, 17S7. 
Breck Parkman, 1783-85. 
Jonathan Forbes, 178S-96. 
James Hawes, 1797, 1798. 
Samuel Fisher, 1799, 1800. 
Andrew Peters, 1801-4, 1809, 1810. 
Thomas Andrews, 1805, 1807, 1808. 
John Sanborn, 1811-14. 
Elijah Brigham Jr., 1815. 
Charles Parkman, 1816-29. 
Caleb W. Forbush, 1830-32. 
John A. Fayerweather, 1833-42. 
Hiram Haven, 1843-46. 
Otis Newton, 1847. 
Josiah Childs, 1848-54, i860, 1861. 
Samuel M. Griggs, 1855-59. 
Daniel F. Newton, 1862-67. 
George O. Brigham, 1868- 



IV. 



REPRESENTATIVES. 



THE following is a list of Representatives from Westborough 
and the district including Westborough, to the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives. Until 1858 the town was entitled to 
send one representative each year. From 1858 to 1887 West- 
borough and Southborough constituted the district. In the latter 
year the State was again re-districted. Westborough is now in 
the twelfth Worcester district, with Northborough, Southborough, 
Berlin, Shrewsbury, and Grafton. This district is entitled to two 
representatives. 






James Eager, 173S. 

Edward Baker, 1741. 

Francis Whipple, 1746, 1755, 1756, 

1762, 1763, 1765. 
Thomas Forbush, 1759. 
Bezaleal Eager, 1760, 1761. 
Jonathan Bond, 1764-66. 
Stephen Maynard, 176S-77, 1785-S9. 
Daniel Forbes, 1777. 
James Hawes, 1778-80. 
Joseph Baker, 1781. 
Hananiah Parker, 1782. 
Elijah Brigham, 1791, 1793. 

athan Fisher, 1 794-99, 1801-11,1816. 
Simeon Bellows, 1812. 
Moses Grout, 1813. 
Lovett Peters, 1824. 
Phinehas Gleason, 1827, 1828, 1830, 

1835 
Charles Parkman, 1829. 
Joshua Mellen, 1831-34. 
Nahum Harrington, 1832. 
Silas Wesson, 1833. 
Elisha Rockwood, 1836. 
Jonathan Forbes, 1837. 
Otis Converse, 1838. 



Otis Brigham, 1839, 1840. 

Nahum Fisher, 1841. 

Nathan E. Fisher, 1S42, 1843. 

Josiah Brigham, 1844. 

M. A. Maynard, 1845, 1846. 

Lawson Harrington, 1847, 1848. 

Elmer Brigham, 1849-51. 

Daniel H. Forbes, 1S52. 

Abijah Wood, 1853. 

Josiah Child, 1854. 

Benjamin Boynton, 1855. 

Charles P. Rice, 1856. 

Clark R. Griggs, 1857. 

Otis Newton, 1858. 

Jonas Fay (of Southborough), 1859. 

Albert J. Burnap, i860. 

Dexter Newton (of Southborough), 

1861. 
J. F. B. Marshall, 1862. 
Samuel M. Griggs, 1863. 
Curtis Newton (of Southborough), 

1864. 
Reuben Boynton, 1865. 
John A. Fayerweather, 1866. 
Henry S. Wheeler (of Southborough), 

1867. 



REPRESENTATIVES. 



471 



Samuel Appleton (of Southborough), 

1868. 
William M. Child, 1869, 1870. 
Arthur G. Biscoe, 1871. 
Francis Fisher (of Southborough), 

1872. 
William H. Buck (of Southborough), 

1873- 

Reuben Boynton, 1874, 1875. 

B. Alden Nourse, 1876. 

Dexter Newton (of Southborough), 
1877. 

George O. Brigham, 1878, 1879 

Leander W. Newton (of Southbo- 
rough), 1880. 

William T. Forbes, 1 881, 1882. 

Fitch H. Winchester (of Southbor- 
ough), 1883. 



Edwin B. Harvey, 1884, 1885. 
Horace F. Webster (of Southbo- 
rough), 1886. 
George B. Brigham . . . -\ 
Samuel I. Howe (of Shrews- £ 1887. 

bury) ) 

J. H. Robinson (of Southbo. j 

rough) 

Albert L. Fisher (of Grafton) 
Alden M. Bigelow (of Graf- 
ton) 

Samuel Wood (of North- 
borough ' 

John W. Fairbanks . } 
Lyman Morse (of Berlin) j * 9°' 
John W. Fairbanks . . . ) 
Edward C. Howe (of Shrews- ? 1891. 
bury) ) 



1888. 



188c. 



V. 



VOTES FOR GOVERNOR. 

FOLLOWING is the record of Westborough's vote in every 
election for governor since 1782. The first governor under 
the Constitution was chosen in 1780; but there appears to be no 
record of Westborough's vote in that or in the following year. 
In both those years John Hancock was the successful candidate. 
In the following record the name of the candidate who was 
elected is printed first. The date given shows the year in which 
the governor served, not the year of election : — 



1782. 

John Hancock 24 

Azor Orn 9 

Scattering 3 — 36 

I783- 

John Hancock 33 

Azor Orn 2 

Benjamin Lincoln .... 2 — 37 

1784. 

John Hancock 22 

Azor Orn 4 

Benjamin Lincoln .... 1 — 27 

1785- 

James Bowdoin ... 4 

Thomas Cushing .... 22 

Azor Orn 15 

Scattering 8 — 49 

1786. 

James Bowdoin .... 27 

John Hancock 7 

Scattering 2 — 36 



John Hancock 
James Bowdoin 


1787 


. . 100 

• • 7- 


-107 


John Hancock 


1788 


. . 90 




John Hancock 
James Bowdoin 
Samuel Adams 


1789 


. . 80 
12 
. . 2— 


■ 94 


John Hancock 
James Bowdoin 
Samuel Adams 


1790. 


• • 65 
. . 1 
. . 1— 


67 


John Hancock 


1791. 


. . 76 




John Hancock 
Samuel Phillips 
Azor Orn . . 


1792. 


• • S 6 

• • 7 

. . 1— 


64 



VOTES FOR GOVERNOR. 



473 



1793 

John Hancock 
Samuel Phillips . 
Samuel Adams . 

1794 

Samuel Adams 

William Cushing 
Elbridge Gerry . 

1795 

Samuel Adams . 
William Cushing . 
Elbridge Gerry 

1796 

Samuel Adams 
Increase Sumner 
Elbridge Gerry 

1797 

Increase Sumner . 
Moses Gill . . 
Edward H. Robbins 
Scattering . . . 



1798 

Increase Sumner . 
Moses Gill . . . 
E. H. Robbins . 

1799 

Increase Sumner . 
E. H. Robbins . 



1800 



Caleb Strong . 
Elbridge Gerry 
Moses Gill . . 



1 801 



Caleb Strong . 
Elbridge Gerry 



49 
6 
1-56 



—62 



—54 



-81 



; — 53 



69 

4 
3—76 



69 
2—71 



37 
41 



62 
36-98 



1802. 



Caleb Strong . . . 
Elbridge Gerry . . 
Edward H. Robbins 

1803. 

Caleb Strong . . 
Elbridge Gerry . . 
Edward H. Robbins 

1804. 

Caleb Strong . . . 
James Sullivan . . 
Edward H. Robbins 



1805 



Caleb Strong . 
James Sullivan 
Elbridge Gerry 



1806 



Caleb Strong . 
James Sullivan 



1807 



James Sullivan 
Caleb Strong . 



1808 

James Sullivan 
Christopher Gore 
Scattering ... 



1809 

Christopher Gore 
Levi Lincoln . 
Scattering . . , 



1810 
Elbridge Gerry , 
Christopher Gore 
Harrison G. Otis 

1811 

Elbridge Gerry . 
Christopher Gore 



63 
3i 

2 — 96 



63 

9 

1— 73 



58 

33 
1— 92 



70 

93 

1 — 164 



82 



5— 170 



103 

90—193 



99 
77 
2—178 



• 87 

• "3 

2 — 202 



. 116 

. 86 

1—203 



100 
85-185 



474 



APPENDIX. 



1812. 
Caleb Strong 99 



Elbridge Gerry . . 

1813. 

Caleb Strong . . 
Joseph B. Varnum . 
Aaron Dexter . . 



1814. 



Caleb Strong 
Samuel Dexter 



113 — 212 



119 

no 
1—230 



117 

1 20 — 237 



1815. 

Caleb Strong no 

Samuel Dexter .... 95 — 205 

1816. 

John Brooks 93 

Samuel Dexter .... 115 — 208 

1817. 

John Brooks 100 

Henry Dearborn . . . 85—185 

1818. 

John Brooks 95 

Benjamin W. Crowninshield 81 

Charles Parkman . . . 1 — 117 

1819. 

John Brooks 108 

Benjamin W. Crowninshield 87 — 195 

1820. 

John Brooks 89 

William Eustis .... 68 — 157 

1821. 

John Brooks 79 

William Eustis .... 66 — 145 

1822. 

John Brooks 98 

William Eustis .... 77 — 175 



1823. 

William Eustis . . 
Harrison G. Otis . 



1824. 



William Eustis . 
Samuel Lothrop 



100 
98—198 



1825. 

Levi Lincoln 112 

Marcus Morton .... 1 

Josiah Quincy .... 1 — 114 

1826. 

Levi Lincoln 70 

Samuel Hubbard ... 81 

James Lloyd 5 — 156 

1827. 

Levi Lincoln 132 

Marcus Morton .... 3 — 135 

1828. 

Levi Lincoln 118 

Scattering 3 — 121 

1829. 

Levi Lincoln 79 

Marcus Morton .... 10 

Samuel Lothrop . . . 1 — 90 

1830. 

Levi Lincoln 121 

Marcus Morton .... 9 — 130 

1831. 

Levi Lincoln 144 

Marcus Morton .... 3 

Samuel Lothrop ... 3 

Scattering 4 — 154 

1832. 

Levi Lincoln 131 

Samuel Lothrop ... 37 

Marcus Morton .... 4 — 172 



VOTES FOR GOVERNOR. 



475 



1833- 

Levi Lincoln 128 

Samuel Lothrop ... 61 

Marcus Morton .... 3 — 192 

1834. 

John Davis 80 

John Quincy Adams . . 91 

Marcus Morton .... 8 

Scattering 2 — 181 

1835- 

John Davis 170 

John Bailey 24 

Marcus Morton .... 11 — 205 

1836. 

Edward Everett . . . 156 

Marcus Morton .... 22 — 178 

1837- 

Edward Everett . . . 160 

Marcus Morton .... 33 — 193 

1838. 

Edward Everett ... 191 

Marcus Morton .... 22 — 213 

1839. 

Edward Everett . . . 218 

Marcus Morton .... 51 — 269 

1840. 

Marcus Morton .... 72 

Edward Everett .... 222 

William Jackson . . . 1—295 

1 841. 

John Davis 290 

Marcus Morton .... 50 — 240 

1842. 

John Davis 241 

Marcus Morton .... 54 

Scattering 12 — 307 



1843. 

Marcus Morton . . 
John Davis . . . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 

1844. 

George N. Briggs . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 
Marcus Morton . . 

1845. 

George N. Briggs . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 
George Bancroft 

1846. 

George N. Briggs . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 
Isaac Davis • . . 
Scattering .... 



1847. 

George N. Briggs . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 
Francis Baylies . . 
Scattering .... 



1848. 

George N. Briggs . 
Caleb Cushing . . 
Samuel E. Sewall . 
Scattering .... 



1849. 

George N. Briggs . 
Stephen C. Phillips 
Caleb Cushing . . 

1850. 

George N. Briggs . 
Stephen C. Phillips 
George S. Boutwell 



71 
189 

76—336 



186 
97 
73—376 



210 
99 
63—372 



87 
56 
16—347 



190 

83 
40 

33—346 



181 
29 

27 
20—257 



»39 
176 

18-233 



143 
147 
22 — 3»2 



476 



APPENDIX. 



1851. 

George S. Boutwell 
Stephen C. Phillips 
George N. Briggs . 
Scattering .... 



1852. 

George S. Boutwell 
John G. Palfrey . . 
Robert C. Winthrop 

1853- 
John H. Clifford . 
Horace Mann . . 
Henry W. Bishop . 

1854. 

Emory Washburn . 
Henry Wilson . . 
Bradford L. Wales 
Scattering .... 



16 

183 

155 
10—364 



29 

206 



1855- 
Henry J. Gardner . 
Emory Washburn . 
Henry Wilson . , 
Scattering .... 



1856. 
Henry J. Gardner . 
Julius Rockwell . . 
Erasmus D. Beach . 
Scattering .... 



1857- 
Henry J. Gardner . 
Erasmus D. Beach . 
Luther V. Bell . . 
Scattering .... 



1858. 

Nathaniel P. Banks 
Henry J. Gardner . 
Erasmus D. Beach . 
Scattering .... 



160 — 403 

168 
205 
M—387 



167 

203 

32 

19; — 421 



238 

n 

59 

27 — 401 



87 

*77 
96 
56—416 



220 
57 
5i 
5—333 



23* 
112 

53 
1—297 



1859. 

Nathaniel P. Banks 
Erasmus D. Beach . 
Amos A. Lawrence 

i860. 
Nathaniel P. Banks 
George N. Briggs . 
Benjamin F. Butler 

1861. 
John A. Andrew 
Erasmus D. Beach . 
Amos A. Lawrence 
Scattering .... 



222 

5 1 
15-288 



. 220 
• 63 
. 46—329 



96 
46 
2—442 



1862. 



John A. Andrew 
Isaac Davis . . 



. 210 

72—282 



1863. 

John A. Andrew . . 
Charles Devens, Jr. . 

1864. 
John A. Andrew . . 
Henry W. Paine . . 
Alexander H. Bullock 

1865. 
John A. Andrew . . 
Henry W. Paine . . 
Robert C. Pitman . . 

1866. 
Alexander H. Bullock 
Darius N. Couch . . 

1867. 
Alexander H. Bullock 
Theodore H. Sweetzer 

1868. 

Alexander H Bullock. 
John Quincy Adams . 



238 

184 — 422 



. 208 

• 73 

2—283 



320 
130 
1— 451 



276 
65—241 



287 
72—359 



363 
165-528 



VOTES FOR GOVERNOR. 



477 



1869. 
William Claflin . . . 
John Quincy Adams . 

1870. 
William Claflin . . . 
John Quincy Adams . 
Edwin M. Chamberlain 
Scattering .... 



1871. 

William Claflin . . . 
Wendell Phillips . . 
John Quincy Adams . 

1872. 
William B. Washburn 
John Quincy Adams . 
Robert C. Pitman . . 
Scattering 



1 23-5 ix 



278 
108 
49 
4—439 



200 
102 

72—374 



222 
95 
41 
42 — 400 



i873- 

William B. Washburn 
Francis W. Bird . . 

1874. 
William B. Washburn 
William Gaston . . . 
Scattering 



471 



1875- 
William Gaston . . 
Thomas Talbot . . 

1876. 
Alexander H. Rice 
William Gaston . . 
John I. Baker . . 
Scattering .... 



1877. 
Alexander H. Rice . 
Charles F. Adams . 
John I. Baker . . 



5-559 



263 
93 

2-358 



2T9 

353-572 



3 2 4 
241 

56 
4—625 



502 
232 
33—767 



1878. 
Alexander H. Rice . 
William Gaston . . 
Robert C. Pitman . 
Scattering .... 



1879. 
Thomas Talbot 
Benjamin F. Butler 
Alonzo A. Miner . 
Scattering .... 



1880. 
John D. Long . . 
Benjamin F. Butler 
John Quincy Adams 
Scattering .... 



John D. Long . . . 
Charles P. Thompson 
Charles Almy . . . 

1882. 
John D. Long . . . 
Charles P. Thompson. 
Charles Almy . . . 
Scattering 



1883. 
Benjamin F. Butler 
Robert R. Bishop . 
Charles Almy . . . 



1884. 
George D. Robinson . 
Benjamin F. Butler 
Charles Almy . . . 

1885. 
George D. Robinson . 
William C. Endicott . 
Matthew J. McCafferty 
Scattering 



341 
179 
84 
2—606 



447 
258 
25 
2—732 



446 
213 

19 

9—687 



544 
229 
13—786 



283 
97 
16 
2-398 



280 

423 
10—713 



532 
384 
9-925 



540 
260 

79 

28 — 907 



478 



APPENDIX. 



1886. 
George D. Robinson 
Frederick O. Prince 
Thomas L. Lothrop 

1887. 

Oliver Ames . . . 
John F. Andrew 
Thomas L. Lothrop 

1888. 
Oliver Ames . . . 
Henry B. Lovermg 
William H. Earle . 



3 2 9 
192 

15—536 



383 
285 

6—674 



372 
265 
26—663 



1889 

Oliver Ames 477 

William E. Russell . . 348 
William H. Earle . . . 71—896 

1890. 

John Q. A. Bracket! . . 316 

William E. Russell . . 264 

John Blackmer .... 123 — 703 

1891. 

William E. Russell . . 301 

John Q. A. Brackett . . 278 

John Blackmer .... 108—687 



VI. 

REV. EBENEZER PARKMAN'S HISTORY OF 
WESTBOROUGH. 

THE following sketch of the History of Westborough appears 
in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, Second 
Series, vol. x. p. 84. It is entitled " An Account of Westborough 
(Mass.), by Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, Jan. 28, 1767." 

This town was formerly part of Marlborough, and called Chauncy. 
It is said that in early times one Mr. Chauncy was lost in one of 
the swamps here, and that from thence this part of the town had 
its name. Two ponds, a greater and a less, are also called 
Chauncy, — most probably from the same cause. 1 

Marlborough was divided by an Act of the General Court 
Nov. 19, 1717, and with the addition of three thousand acres 
of Province land, and some farm lands, this township was erected. 
In the fall of the next year, the first meeting-house was raised. 
The first families were twenty-seven. All the first settlers were 
about forty. 

In June, 1728, a part of Sutton land, about nineteen hundred 
acres, having ten settlers upon it, was laid to us ; and there have 
been some small additions of land from other towns since ; from 
places from the southeast part of Shrewsbury ; and three from the 
northwest part of Upton. 

1 There are six ponds here ; the largest of them, or great Chauncy pond, 
is in the midst of the township, as originally granted, and is about a mile in 
length. It was by the Indians anciently termed Naggawoomcom, or Great 
Pond. There is another pond, which was called Hobbumocke, from some sup- 
posed infernal influence, which a man was unhappily under nigh that pond, 
from morning till the sun sat. The River Assabet ( I never knew the meaning 
of that name) flows through this town. Its source is a little above us. Pas- 
sing through several other towns, at length it fills into Merrimack. 



480 APPENDIX. 

A church was gathered here Oct. 28, 1724 ; there being twelve 
members besides the writer, who was that day ordained the pastor. 
Rev. Mx.John Prentice, of Lancaster, preached from 2 Cor. xii. 15. 
He also gave the solemn charge ; and Rev. Mr. Israel Loring, of 
Sudbury, the right hand of fellowship. The number of families 
when I come here was fifty-eight. 1 

October 20, 1744, the town of Wcstborough, consisting of 125 
families, was, by an Act of the General Court, divided into two 
precincts, the north part being indeed very small. 

April 30, 1745, the north meeting-house was raised. 

May 21, 1746, a church was gathered in the north precinct, and 
Rev. Mr. John Martyn was ordained the pastor. [Rev. Mr.] 
Parkman preached on that occasion from Heb. xiii. 17 ; Rev. Mr. 
Prentice aforesaid gave the charge ; and Rev. Mr. dishing, of 
Shrewsbury, the right hand. 

May 3, 1749, the meeting-house in the first precinct was raised ; 
and Sept. 3d following we first met in it. 

In the year 1765 the north precinct was, by an Act of the 
General Court, made a district by the name of Northborongh. The 
number of communicants in Northborough is twenty-one males 
and twenty- three females. 

The present number of families here, in the town, is 120; of 
church members, including those who occasionally communicate 
with us, as members of other churches, and a number who, 
living so contiguous to us as to be nigher here than to their 
own meeting-house, have therefore joined to our church, but 
without counting many who are gone into various parts of the 
country and are not dismissed from us, 130. 

Male members who dwell here 42 "\ 

do. who dwell on the borders . 3/48 
Occasional who dwell here 3 ' 

1 Mr. Daniel Elmer, a candidate for the ministry, from Connecticut River, 
preached here several years, and received a call from the people ; but there 
arose dissention, and though he built upon the farm which was given for the 
first settled minister, and dwelt upon it, yet by the advice of an ecclesiastical 
council he desisted from preaching here ; and a quit-claim being given him 
of the farm, he sold, and with his family removed to Springfield in 1724. He 
was afterwards settled in the ministry at Cohanzy in the Jerseys, and I 
suppose died there. 



MR. PARKMAN'S HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH. 48 1 

Educated at Harvard College were, — 

Rev. Eli Forbes, Pastor of Second Church in Brookfield. 

Asaph Rice Westminster. 

Jonathan Livermore Wilton. 

Joseph Bowman Oxford. 

Thomas Rice, Esq., who is at Pownalborough. 
Ebenezer Rice, A. B. 
Jacob Rice, A. B. 

Among the Remarkable Providences has been the mischief by 
the Indians. 

On Aug. 8, 1704, ten Indians rushed down from an hill upon a 
number of boys who were with divers persons that were spreading 
flax on the plain below ; they slew one of the boys immediately, 
and captivated four, three of which continued and grew up in 
Canada. One of them 1 was a sachem many years ago, and well 
known to Hendrick, the Mohawk chief, when he was here. 
Colonel Lydius, of Albany, informs me that he is the present 
principal sachem of the Caghnawaga tribe, near Montreal. 

1 Timothy Rice ; his Indian name was Oughtzorongoughtou. 



INDEX. 



Abbott, Rev. Edward C, 237. 
Adams, Charles F., 477. 

Jr., Daniel, 163. 

Frank S., 340. 

George S., 404. 

Isaac, 197. 

John, 151, 212. 

John Q., 265, 274. 

John Quincy, 475, 476, 477. 

Minot C, 256, 268, 270, 274, 329. 

Samuel, 158, 472, 473. 

place, the F. J., 460. 
Adventists', Second, 240. 
Agriculture, 245, 346-355- 
Agricultural Society, 228, 406-407, 438. 
Aid, Soldiers', 254, 271. 
Ainsworth's Psalm-book, 112. 
Aldrich, George S., 265, 275. 

Hannibal S., 468. 

William M., 256, 274. 
Alexander, Rev. Caleb, 203. 
Alexandria, Va., 260, 263. 
Allen, Augustus, 251, 275. 

Rev. C. A., 237. 

Harding, 468. 

Rev. Joseph, 18, 28. 

Joseph A., 402. 
Aliens, the, 451. 
Almy, Charles, 477. 
American Block, 333. 

Straw Sewing Machine Co., 333, 367. 
Ames, Oliver, 478. 
Amherst College, 377, 441, 451. 
Amsden, Isaac, 42. 

Jacob, 46, 62, 104, 115, 465, 466. 
Anderson, Captain, 247. 
Anderson ville, Ga., 268. 
Andrew, John A., 252, 476. 

John F., 478. 
Andrews, George, 145, 196, 465, 467, 
469. 

2d George, 196. 

John, 233. 



Andrews, Nathaniel, 233. 

Thomas, 198, 467, 469. 
Andros, Governor, 107. 
Angier & Co., P. A., 367. 
Anniversary, Church, 335-336. 

sermon, Mr. Parkman's, 125-130. 

week, 150. 
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, 88. 
Appleton, Samuel, 471. 
Appropriations, 370. 
Armory building, 375. 
Arnold, Mr., 155. 

Albert A., 264, 275. 

Rev. A. N., 232, 251, 376. 

Mrs. A. N., 251, 272. 
Ashland, 1, 100. 

Assabet River, 3, 17, 31, 460, 479. 
Awakening, the Great, 115, 122-125. 
Axes, manufactured, 355, 357. 



Babbitt, Rev. George F., 233. 
Bacon, Charles W., 256, 275. 

William B., 253. 

Hopkins & Bacon, 452. 

& Williams, 333, 363. 
Bailey, David M., 265, 275. 

John, 475. 

Walter, 262, 275. 

Rev. Silas, 232. 
Baird, Daniel, 395. 

Baker, Edward, 63, 97, 98, 99, 109, 133, 
138, 466, 468, 469, 470. 

John, 196. 

John I., 477. 

Joseph, 161, 196, 465, 467, 470. 

Solomon, 467. 
Baldwin, Mr., 364. 
Ball, Benjamin, 163, 164, 197. 

James, 81, 115, 466. 

John, 163, 197. 

Nathan, 466. 

Phinehas, 417, 420. 



4§4 



INDEX. 



Ball's Hill, 47. 

Ballou, George S., 262, 275. 

Rev. Hosea, 233. 
Baltimore, 248. 
Bancroft, George, 475. 
Bank, First National, 397. 

Westborough Savings, 397. 
Banks, Nathaniel P., 400, 476. 
Baptist Church, 209, 225, 231-233, 240, 

333- 
Barker, Ira, 269, 326. 
Barnard, George M., 400. 
Barnes, Richard, 34, 198. 

Jr., Richard, 198. 
Barre, 355. 
Barry, Father, 240. 
Barstow, Sidney, 251, 276. 
Bartlett, Abbie M., 447. 

Frank V., 366, 414, 447. 

Warren, 264, 265, 276. 

place, the, 30. 
Basin, baptismal, 91. 
Bates, Abigail, 436. 

Adeline, 436. 

Edward C, 240, 398, 414, 435. 

Rev. Joshua, 436. 

Lucius R., 333, 364, 389. 

Zealous, 436. 

& Beaman, 365. 

Parker & Co., 364. 

Wightman & Beaman, 364. 

Straw factory, 206, 364-365, 389. 
Bathrick, David, 198. 

Jonathan, 198. 

Solomon, 198. 

Stephen, 197. 
Bay Psalm-book, 113, 114- 
Baylies, Francis, 475. 
Beach, Erasmus D., 476. 
Beals, Isaiah H., 251, 260, 276. 
Beaman [or Beeman], Eleazer, 46, 
466. 

Ira M., 394. 

Willard W. 365. 
Beeker, Ezra, 197. 
Beeman, Abraham, 196. 

Curtis, 228, 332, 370, 465, 467. 

Joshua E., 468. 
Beeres, William, 6. 
Beers, Rev. Henry N., 238, 335. 

Capt. Richard, 461, 462. 
Beers's Grant, 461. 
Beeton, Jane S., 379. 

John, 197. 
Belcher, Governor, 39, 103. 

Andrew, 17. 



Belknap, Ellen M., 439. 

Dr. Jeremy, 182, 183. 

John, 438, 458. 

2d Joseph, 198. 

Lowell, 468. 

Lyman, 232, 328, 330, 333, 403, 
467 ; biographical sketch, 438. 

Lyman A., 439. 

Ruth, 438. 

Stephen, 198. 
Bell, John, 246, 248.- 

presented to town, 208 ; new 225. 
Bellows, Daniel, 467, 468. 

James, 163. 

George N., 264, 265, 276. 

Reuben, 198. 

Samuel, 163, 196, 198. 

Simeon, 467, 470. 
Bemis, Hiram C, 264, 276. 
Bennett, Dexter W., 257, 277. 
Bennington, 169. 
Berlin, 100, 203, 470. 
Bernard, Henry O., 365, 366. 

Paul D., 366. 

&Co., H. O., 365,451. 

Manufacturing Co., H. 0., 366, 
370, 45 !• 
Berryhill, William, 262, 277. 
Bicycles, manufacture of, 367. 
Bigelow [or Biglow], Widow, 197. 

Alden M., 470. 

Asahel, 163, 164, 197. 

A. M., 449. 

Helen. 449. 
Bingham, George P., 382. 
Biographical Sketches, 431-453- 
Bird. Francis W., 477. 
Biscoe, Arthur G., 341, 412; biograph- 
ical sketch, 449; 465, 471. 

T. Dwight, 373. 

Rev. Thomas C, 449. 
Bishop, Henry W., 476. 

Robert R., 477. 
Blake, Clara S., 379- 
Black, Robert, 265, 277. 
Blackmer, John, 478. 

Rev. W. P., 239, 251, 252, 277. 
Blackstone, 368. 
Blake, J. W., 370. 

Luke, 407. 

Percy M., 420. 

William F., 267, 268, 270, 277. 

William H., 256, 277, 329. 

William M., 264, 277, 389, 468. 
Blake place, the, 47, 155, 358. 
Blanchard, Charles W., 255, 277. 



INDEX. 



485 



Blanchard, John, 265, 278. 
Blizzard, the great, 422. 
Board of Trade, 413. 
Polton, 100. 
Bond, Abraham, 198. 

Herbert W., 262, 26S, 270, 278, 

3 2 9- 

John S., 255, 278. 

Jonathan, 138, 152, 154, 161, 162, 

465, 466, 46S, 470. 
Joseph, 163, 197. 
Josiah, 203. 

Thomas, 161, 163, 169, 170, 467. 
Boot and Shoemakers' International 

Union, 412. 
Boots and shoes, manufacture of, 224, 

35°-3 61 - 
Boston (in 1720), 65-66 ; 150, 151, 153, 
158, 160; siege, 164; 268. 

Harbor, 251. 

Hill, 31, 459. 
Bosworth, Benjamin, 458. 

Edward, 458, 

Nathaniel, 458. 

Grant, 458-459. 
Boulie, Peter, 264, 27S. 
Bounties, 169-172, 256, 257, 271. 
Boutelle, Lewis H., 259, 278. 
Boutwell, George S., 475, 476. 
Bowdoin, James, 472. 
Bowen, Rev. William, 232. 
Bowes, John, 249. 
Bowman, Amy A., 440. 

Benjamin, 197. 

Eleazer, 465. 

James, 169, 170, 191, 197. 

John W., 265, 278. 

Joseph, 481. 

Levi, 198, 361, 382, 440. 
Boyle, Rev. Patrick, 424. 
Boynton, Alden L., 264, 278, 406, 468. 

Benjamin, 249, 403, 465, 468, 470. 

Reuben, 332, 386, 389, 416, 468, 
470, 471. 
Boylston, 34. 

Brackett, John Q. A., 478. 
Bradish, James, 46, 51, 52, 62, 81, 466, 

469. 
Brady, Dr., 155. 

Patrick, 426. 
Bragg, Mrs. M. L., 427. 

Urial, 359. 

Willard, 359. 
Brajden, James, 24. 
Braley, Ellison L., 264, 279. 

Frank G., 264, 265, 279. 



Breck, Hannah, 106, 431. 

Rev. Robert, 81, 106, 431. 
Breckenridge, John C, 246, 248. 
Bricks, manufacture of, 357, 366. 
Brick Block, the, 396. 
Bridge, Rev. Mr., 186. 
Briggs, George N., 475, 476. 
Brigham, Widow, 196. 

Abigail A., 436. 

Albert, 262, 268, 279. 

Ann F., 436. 

Ann M., 433. 

Anna P., 437. 

Anna S., 433. 

Anne, 190. 

Antipas, 198, 206, 467. 

Atherton F., 445. 

Barnabas, 163. 

Bertram F., 445. 

Calvin L., 262, 268, 279, 437. 

Carrie G., 445. 

Catherine M., 433. 

Charles E., 256, 279, 437. 

Charles R., 252, 261, 280. 

Cyrus, 353. 

Dana W., 433. 

Daniel, 466. 

Daniel E., 436. 

David, 46, 47, 52, 55, 57, 81,98, 102. 
198, 433. 436, 466. 

Dexter, 220, 235, 405. 

Dexter P., 256, 279, 338. 

Edmund, 163, 169, 170, 196, 467. 

Edward, 163, 164. 

Edward E., 362. 

Elijah, 135, 196, 198, 202, 219, 407, 
432 ; biographical sketch, 433 ; 
465, 467, 468, 470. 

Jr. Elijah, 469. 

Ella L., 445. 

Ellen E., 437. 

Elmer, 352, 407 •, biographical sketch, 
436; 443»465» 467,470. 

Ernest P., 445. 

Francis A., 252, 257, 280. 

Frank, 363. 

Frank F., 445. 

George Ball, 225, 332, 359, 360, 361 ; 
biographical sketch, 444 ; 448, 471 ; 
farmhouse, 369. 

George Bickford, 445. 

George C, 265, 280. 

George O., 331, 334, 352, 367, 387, 
397, 4°6, 407, 410, 417, 426, 436, 
469, 471. 

Gershom, 197. 



486 



INDEX. 



Brigham, Hannah J., 437. 
Harrison M., 252, 2S0. 
Henrietta A., 436. 
Holway, 407. 
Horace E., 360, 445. 
I vers J., 436. 
Jesse, 67. 

John, 19, 31, 34, 42, 43, 460, 462. 
John L., 360, 445, 448. 
John W., 465. 
Jonas, 138, 466. 
Joseph, 467. 
Joshua B., 436- 
Josiah, 352, 407, 467, 470. 
Josiah A., 396. 
Jotham, 46. 
Levi, 431, 433, 466. 
Lillie J., 445. 
Lucy H., 436. 
Marion H., 445. 
Mary, 460. 

Ma O' J-, 43 6 - 

Merrick P., 437. 

Moses, 460. 

Nathan, 34, 133. 

Nelly F., 444. 

Otis, 223, 225, 380, 407 ; biographical 
sketch, 435 ; 446, 465, 467, 470. 

Phineas, 163, 164, 196. 

Sally, 433. 

Sally S., 433. 

Samuel, 34. 

Samuel N., 269, 326. 

Sereno L., 436. 

Seth, 163. 

Silas H., 264, 265, 280, 338. 

Silas O., 444. 

Sophia A., 437. 

Susan, 437. 

Susanna, 431. 

Susanna W., 433. 

Thomas, 19, 34, 40, 460. 

Capt. Timothy, 28. 

Warren L., 259, 264, 280. 

&Co., C, 352-354. 

Gould & Co., 448. 

farm, the, 459. 

place, the Warren, 19, 28. 
Brimsmead, William, 16. 
Brittan, John W., 410. 
Broaders, Hiram L., 341. 

Jacob, 193. 
Brocklebank, Captain, 26. 
Brookfield, 22, 30, 103, 104, 142. 
Brooks, John, 474. 
Brooks & Wells, 360. 



Brown, Col. Josiah, 146. 

Wilder F., 363. 

William, 265, 281. 

Rev. William L., 232. 

University, 377. 
Bruce, Abijah, 134, 138, 465. 

Thomas, 101. 
Bryant, Noyes, 361. 
Buchanan, President, 246. 
Buck, William H., 471. 
Buckminster, Col. Joseph, 457. 
Bull Run, 256, 260. 

Second, 260. 
Bullard, Edwin, 271, 397, 406, 468. 

Emory, 252, 281. 

Ethan, 252, 396, 465, 468. 

Francis W., 262, 268, 281, 396, 468. 

Hartwell, 407, 467. 

Israel H., 264, 281, 386, 389, 468. 

Martin, 233, 257, 281, 467. 
Bullock, Alexander H., 476. 
Bunker Hill, 164. 
Burbank, L. S., 376. 
Burgess, Charles B., 255,281. 
Burgoyne's defeat, 169. 
Burial lots, 210. 
Burke, Rev. R. S. J., 240. 
Burnap, Albert J., 257, 331, 332, 362, 
468, 470. 

Elijah, 224, 437. 

Henry A., 258, 264, 282, 468. 

John S., 252, 253, 271, 282, 329 

Forbes & Co., 225, 362. 
Burns, James, 258, 282. 

John, 252, 282. 

Patrick, 259, 282. 
Burnside, General, 267. 
Burrier, James, 373, 376. 
Butler, Benjamin F., 476, 477. 

John, 147. 

& Mellen, 197. 
Byles, Capt. Joseph, 46, 47. 



Cady, Rev. Daniel R., 238, 335, 336. 

Canawagas, the, 39, 481. 

Call, George L., 267, 283. 

Calverly, John, 267, 283. 

Cambridge, 164. 

Card, William J., 265, 283. 

Carter, Andrew P., 258, 283. 

Charles S., 257, 268, 270, 283, 329. 

James D., 267, 283. 
Caruth, John, 147. 
Cary, Thomas, 258, 283. 
Casey, Rev. Edmund D., 424. 



INDEX. 



487 



Casey, Patrick, 249, 258, 283. 
Cavey, Michael, 265, 284. 
Cedar Swamp, 3, 101, 422. 
Celebration, church, 335 ; centennial, 

33 6 -343- 
Cemetery, appropriations for, 370. 
Centennial Park, 334. 
Central Block, 334, 389, 396. 
Chairs, manufacture of, 357, 358. 
Chamberlain, Calvin, 250. 

Daniel, 198, 204, 215, 216, 382, 465, 
467. 

Ebenezer, 198, 466. 

Edwin M., 477. 

Henry, 447. 

Jason, 352. 

Joseph, 163. 

Joshua, 163. 

Luther, 224, 225. 

Nathaniel, 163. 

Samuel, 407, 468. 

Spencer, 252, 284. 
Champney, Hannah, 71. 

Mary, 71, 105. 

Samuel, 71. 
Chandler, John, 43. 
Chapin, David N., 262, 269, 284, 326. 

Theodore F., 402. 
Chapman, Lorenzo A., 258, 284. 
Charleston, S. C, 247. 
Charlton, 355. 
Chase, Frederick D., 264, 284. 

Henry L., 387, 389, 468. 
Chauncy, Charles, 16, 17. 

Engine, 226, 337, 385, 386. 

Farm, 17. 

Hose Company, 390. 

Meadow, 15. 

Pond, 3, 5, 18, 29, 31, 47, 193, 229, 

231, 33 8 . 399? 479* 
Village, 18, 29, 33, 48, 185, 479. 
Cheese factory, 353. 
Chevalier, Napoleon, 264, 284. 
Chickering, George S., 257, 268, 270, 

284, 329. 
Child, Jonathan, 196. 
Josiah, 470. 

William M., 264, 285, 386, 415, 468, 
471. 
Childs, Josiah, 396, 416, 469. 
Choir, the first, 157. 
Christian Commission, 272. 
Christmas, 141. 

Chronotype, the, 331, 391, 393, 420, 422. 
Church government, 177-179; life, pha- 
ses of, 120; music, 112-117, 142, 



155-157; order, 118-120; records, 46, 

87, 236. 
Churchill, Ezra, 264, 285. 
Civil war, cause, 245-246; beginning, 

247 ; Westborough in, 248-273; records 

of soldiers in, 274-327. 
Claflin, William, 477. 
Clark, Charles E., 264. 285. 
Clarke, Annie E., 451. 
Clements, Edward, 267, 285. 
Clemons, Walter, 264, 285. 
Cleveland, President, 396. 
Clifford, John H., 476. 
Clinton, 100, 368. 
Clock presented to town, 209, 225. 
Clocks, manufacture of, 355. 
Cloyes, Gardner, 225, 361, 384, 385, 467. 
Cobb, Charles, D., 333, 427. 
Edward, 197. 

& Co.'s grain-store, C. D., 389. 
Cobb's Block, 224, 358, 395. 
Cochrane, James, 361. 
Codman, Charles R., 403. 
Cody, Isaac, 197. 
Coil, Rev. E. A., 237. 
Cold Harbor Meadow, 15. 
Cole, Jefferson K., 262, 285. 
Colfax, Schuyler, 408. 
Collins, Prof. Lewis, 452. 
Comey, Willard, 337, 365, 367. 
Committee of Correspondence, 158. 
Common, the, 194. 
Communion Service, 203, 236. 
Comstock, Mrs. Salmon, 251. 
Conant, Mrs. Mary B., 441. 

Thomas, 231, 232, 
Concord, 22, 162. 
Congregational Calvinistic Society, 234. 

Society, First, 221, 224, 233, 235. 
Congress, Continental, 160, 162, 165, 

174, 33 8 > 339- 
Connecticut road, the, 22, 30, 104, 461. 
Conroy, James, 265, 285. 
Constable, first chosen, 49; 52, 107, 108. 
Constitution, state, 174, 175. 
Constitutional convention, 175, 191. 
Converse, Rev. Otis, 232, 470. 

Sherman, 340, 415, 416, 465. 
Cook, Rev. H. A., 236. 

Stephen, 197. 
Coolidge. Victor, 265, 286. 
Copeland, John, 252, 262, 268, 270, 286, 

329- 
Thomas, 252, 260, 270, 286, 329. 
Corbett, 355. 
Elijah, 467. 



483 



INDEX. 



Cordaville, 457. 
Corey, Francis E. f 406. 
Corner Block, 334, 396, 397. 
Cornet Band, 337. 
Cornwallis' Surrender, 184. 
Cotton, Rev. John, 441. 
Cotton-gin, 192, 246, 355, 435. 
Couch, Darius N., 476. 
County, Worcester, 

road, 104. 

tax, 370. 
Court, General, 8, 17, 24, 42, 49, 57, 
141, 160. 

First District, of Eastern Worcester, 

397-398. 444. 45 2 - 
Courts, 104. 

Covenant, Westborough Church, 82. 
Crain, Rising & Co., 359. 
Crane Meadow, 15. 
Creamery Association, 354. 
Cromack, Rev. J. E., 239. 
Cronican, Patrick, 219. 
Cronin, Rev. C. J., 240. 
Cross, Allen W., 259, 286. 
Cross Street factory, 359, 360. 
Crowe, James, 265, 287. 

John, 262, 268, 287. 

Michael. 265, 287. 

Patrick, 262, 268, 269, 286, 327. 
Crowley, John H., 252, 287. 
Crowninshield, Benjamin W., 474. 
Cuddy, Father, 240. 
Cummings, Jr., Rev. Gilbert, 237, 250, 

259, 264, 287. 
Currency, Colonial, 57-58, 102, 168, 

171. 
Currying. 356. 
Curtis, Charlotte M., 443. 
' Jonathan, 443. 

Lucy M., 443. 

William, 135, 330, 338, 341, 380, 387, 
408, 426; biographical sketch, 
442 ; 468. 

fund, 3S0. 

Hose Company, 387. 
dishing, Rev. Mr., 480. 

Caleb, 475. 

Rev. John R., 239. 

Thomas, 472. 

William, 473. 
Cushman, Wallace H., 252, 260, 287. 

Danforth, Samuel, 172. 

grants, 458. 
Dark day, the, 182-184. 

morning, 422. 



Dartmouth College, 433. 

Daughters of Rebecca, Laurel Degree 

Lodge, No. 44, 409. 
Davenport, Alvan, 333, 426. 

Alvan N., 427. 
David, Abimelech, 28. 
Davis, George, 191. 

George L., 259, 267, 288. 

Isaac, 47, 190, 191, 356, 475, 476. 

John, 475. 

M. Gilman, 406. 

Theodore L., 258, 288. 
Day, John E., 373. 376, 427. 

Rev. J. S., 239. 

L. P., 338. 
Deacons chosen, 92. 
Dean, Rev. Artemas, 238, 335. 
Dearborn, Henry. 474. 
Dee, John, 258, 288, 426. 

William, 255, 288. 
" Deer reeves," 106. 
Deerfield, 23, 36. 
De Forest, Rev. Heman P., 238, 335, 

338. 34°, 344. 379. 398, 4°°- 
Delano, Reuben, 262, 288. 
Delevenne, Godfried, 267, 2S8. 
Democratic party, 212, 246, 266. 
Denfeld, Frank F., 367. 

Louis E., 342, 3S0, 465. 
Denison, Major-General, 24. 
Denny, George, 227, 22S, 352, 358, 384, 
385, 403, 407, 432, 464. 

estate, George, 370. 

William, 259, 271, 288, 329. 
Devens, Jr.. Charles, 476. 
Dewson, Francis H., 403. 
Dexter, Aaron, 473. 

Samuel, 474. 
Diary, Rev. Ebenezer Parkman's, 88, 

91, 94, 105, 111, 124. 
Dinan, Dennis D., 338, 396. 
Districts, school, 109, 143. 
Division of town, 107-112, 480. 
Doherty, James, 259, 288. 
Dolan, Michael, 258, 265, 288. 

John, 389. 
Donovan, Byron, 257, 289. 

Ira L., 252, 289. 

Jackson, 255, 289. 

James, 338. 

Rev. R. J., 240. 
Dooley, Edmund T., 402. 
Dorchester, 164, 169. 
Dorr, Rev. Joseph, 81, 85. 
Douglas, George R., 252, 265, 289. 

Stephen A., 246, 248. 



INDEX. 



489 



Drayton, Charles, 252, 289. 

Drafting, 262. 

Drinking habits, early settlers, 53. 

Driscoll, Timothy, 267, 269, 270, 290, 329. 

Drummond, William H., 264, 290. 

Dudley, Edwin A., 262, 290. 

Joseph, 454. 
Dummer, William, 65. 
Dunlap, E. E., 414. 

& Son, D. S., 332, 367, 410. 
Dunn, Patrick, 264, 290. 
Dunning, M. V., 361. 
Durgin, James F., 265, 290. 
Dyer, Thomas B., 255, 290. 



Eager, Bezaleal, 192, 465, 466, 470. 

James, 46, 55, 63, 67, 103, 132, 465, 
466, 470. 
Eagle Block, 334, 389. 
Earle, William H., 478. 
Earthquakes, 92, 128, 142, 421. 
Eastern Star, Order of, Bethany Chap- 
ter, No. 13, 410. 
Eastman, Mattie J., 379. 
Eaton, Gov. Theophilus, 459. 

grant, 459-461. 
Edmands, William H., 258, 290. 
Education, colonial days, 96-100. 
Edwards, Henrietta F., 435. 

Rev. Jonathan, 122, 123. 

Pierrepont, 435. 
Egan, Rev. P., 240, 341. 
Election, Presidential (i860), 246, 248 ; 
(1864), 266. 

Gubernatorial, 472-478. 
Electric lights, 426. 
Eliot, Jacob, 62, 63, 69. 

John, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13. 
Elmer, Rev. Daniel, 48, 51, 59, 127, 480. 
Elwell, Louis J., 337. 
Emerson, Rev. C. W., 237, 340. 

Rev. J. H., 239. 
Emery, George F., 252, 291. 
Emmons, Rev. Nathaniel, 203. 
Endicott, William C, 477. 
Engine-house, 387-388, 426. 
England, Church of, 140. 
Enlistments (in Revolution), 169; (in 

Civil War), 269-270. 
Entwishill, Edward, 163. 
Episcopal services, 240. 
Esty, Edward S., 255, 291. 
Eustis, William, 474. 
Evangelical Society, 235, 237-239,333, 
335- 



Evans, Benjamin, 402. 

Eliza, 331. 
Everett, Edward, 475. 
Exposition, Centennial, 336. 



Factory Association, 423. 
Fairbanks, Aimer R., 269, 292. 
Fairbanks, Benjamin N., 259, 292, 363. 

Charles A., 264, 292. 

Corning, 361, 363, 385, 389. 

George W., 262, 292. 

Freeman, 264, 265, 291. 

Henry A., 252, 264, 292. 

Hollis H., 252, 260, 270, 291. 

John W., 255, 291,385, 471. 

Joseph H., 252, 291, 363, 385. 

Willard W., 266, 292. 
Faneuil Hall, 153. 
Fanin, James, 267, 293. 
Fannon, Bernard, 258, 265, 293. 
Farley, Father, 240. 
Faulkner, David B., 264, 294, 389. 

Jr., Festus, 257, 264, 294. 
Fay, Adam, 147. 

Asa, 47. 

Benjamin, 138, 146, 160, 196, 370, 
466, 469. 

Jr., Benjamin, 370, 382, 467. 

Betty, 124. 

Charles E., 338. 

Charles M., 252, 293. 

Cyrus, 397. 

David, 233, 467. 

Daniel, 467. 

Elizabeth, 82. 

Gershom, 40, 46, 47, 52. 

Jasper, 101. 

Jeduthun, 138, 196. 

Joanna Phillips, 432. 

John, 19, 20, 34, 46, 49, 51, 52, 55, 
57, 62, 66, 81, 89, 92, 95, 102, 146, 
163, 196, 434, 460, 465, 466, 468, 
469. 

John R., 407. 

Jonas, 470. 

Jonathan, 101, 154, 196, 432, 467. 

Josiah, 467. 

Mrs. Mary, 40. 

Nathaniel, 198. 

Samuel, 20, 34, 46, 52, 94, 197, 
460. 

Solomon, 465, 467. 

S. Dexter, 330, 339, 340. 

S. Taylor, 330, 465. 

Thaddeus, 193. 



490 



INDEX. 



Fay, Timothy, 466, 469. 

Rev. VV. Walcott, 239. 

Waldo L., 264, 267, 293. 

William W., 251, 264, 265, 293. 

Zeduthun, 467. 

& Brigham, 224. 

farm, the, 20, 43, 46, 96, 459. 
" Fays, houses of the," 460. 
Fayerweather, George J., 255, 294. 

George T., 257, 264, 266, 294, 337, 

387. 
John, 203, 224, 437. 
John A., 224, 257, 331, 352, 370, 
396, 397, 4°3. 407, 4io, 414 ; bio- 
graphical sketch, 437; 448, 465, 
468, 469, 470. 
Mrs. John A., 251. 
Sarah, 438. 
Federalists, 212. 
Fence-viewers, 52, 56. 
Ferguson, George A., 257, 295. 

Henry C, 257, 295. 
Fessenden, John, 197. 
" Fiddleneck," 456, 457. 
Field-driver, 52. 
Fire department, appropriations for, 370, 

383-390- 

engine, purchased, 226. 
Fires, 331, 334, 423. 
Fish, Rev. Elisha, 202. 
Fisher, Aaron, 197. 

Albert L., 471. 

Charles, 465. 

Charles P., 257, 295. 

Francis, 471. 

G. Milton, 413. 

George N., 352. 

Jabez G., 407, 467, 468. 

Milton M., 395, 406. 

Nahum, 228, 362, 403, 406, 407, 467, 
468, 470. 

Nathan, 175, 191, 196, 394,465, 467, 
468, 470. 

Nathan A., 219, 233, 356. 

Nathan E., 407, 470. 

Nathaniel E., 361, 467. 

S. Deane, 352, 407. 

Mrs. S. D., 272. 

Samuel, 197, 467, 469. 

William, 255, 259, 295. 

& Lothrop, 219. 
Fisher's Mill, 389. 
Fitch & Co., George E., 353. 
Fitchburg, 355, 368. 
Flagg, Henry C, 262, 295. 
Flanders, Rev. C. W., 232, 233, 330. 



Flanders road, 195. 

Fletcher, George W., 267, 296. 

William C, 264, 295. 
Flinn, Patrick, 266, 296. 
Florida, 247. 

Fly, John, 252, 263, 270, 296, 329. 
Fogg, Shaw, Thayer & Co., 360. 
Forbes, Archibald, 408. 

Baxter, 271, 362, 468. 

Catherine W., 451. 

Daniel, 160, 161, 461,470. 

Daniel H., 403, 470. 

Daniel W., 333, 362. 

Rev. Eli, 481. 

Elijah, 444. 

Elisha, 197. 

Ephraim T., 407, 451. 

Frank W., 367, 380, 404. 

George, 359, 360, 468. 

Harriette M., 452. 

John, 166. 

Rev. John P., 237. 

Jonathan, 196, 382, 407, 451, 460, 

467, 469, 470. 
Joseph W., 468. 
Phineas, 197, 467. 
Simeon, 163. 

William T., 387, 398, 414, 426 ; bio- 
graphical sketch, 451; 454, 465, 

468, 471. 
Willis A., 262, 296. 
& Fisher, 362. 

& Son, D. W., 362. 
name, the, 47, 94. 
sleigh factory, 362. 
Forbush, Aaron, 46, 465. 
Abigail, 82. 

Alonzo G., 264, 265, 296. 
Asa, 196. 
Benjamin F., 385. 
Caleb W., 469. 
Coolidge, 233. 
Daniel, 466. 
Dinah, 139. 
Dorcas, 82. 
Ebenezer, 198. 
Eli, 142. 
Isaac, 467. 
Joel, 467. 

Jonathan, 47, 104, 142, 465, 466. 
Jr., Jonathan, 138. 
Lowell, 468. 
Rufus, 197, 467. 
Samuel, 34, 51, 52, 94, 198^ 233, 

465, 467. 
Jr., Samuel, 467. 



INDEX. 



491 



Forbush, Thomas, 34, 46, 47, 50, 52, 55, 
81, 102, 116, 133, 466, 469, 470. 

Jr., Thomas, 466, 468. 

William H., 252, 260, 296. 
Foster, Alfred D., 399. 

Henry S., 258, 296. 

John A., 258, 297. 

Nancy H., 440. 
Fourth of July, 336. 
Fox, Charles B., 253. 
Framingham, 81, 100, 457. 

Tribune, 394. 
Franklin, 203. 

Benjamin, 61. 

James, 61. 
Freeman, Henry A., 269, 297. 
French, Nancy D., 441. 

Revolution, 212. 
Fulham, Francis. 45. 



Gage, General, 39, 160, 162. 

Rev. Nathaniel, 236. 
Gale, Abijah, 145, 160, 196, 202, 465, 
467. 

Amsden, 163. 
Gardner, 368. 

Henry G., 476. 
Garrison houses, 23, 40. 
Gashett, Henry, 147. 
Gaston, William, 477. 
Gates, General, 169. 

Pamelia, 441. 
Gay, Ebenezer, 196. 
George III., king, 150, 151. 
Georgia, 247. 
Gerry, Elbridge, 473, 474. 
Gettysburg, Pa., 260, 263. 
Gibson, Father, 240. 
Gilbert, Timothy, 356. 
Gill, Rev. B., 239. 

Moses, 473. 
Gilmore, John A., 264, 297. 

Stephen A., 366. 
Glazier, Rev. N. Newton, 233. 
Gleason, Elijah, 370. 

Phinehas, 197, 464, 467, 468, 470. 

Jr., Phineas, 163. 

Zebina, 257, 328, 370. 
Glidden, John, 252, 297. 
Godfrey, Capt. James, 163, 164, 170, 197. 

Lucy, 439. 
Good Templars, Welcome Lodge, No. 

150, 409. 
Goodhue, Rev. J. A., 233. 
Goodnow, Mary, 40, 41. 



Goodnow, Samuel, 19, 34, 40, 46, 47, 166. 

Gookin, Major, 4, 9, 21. 

Gore, Christopher, 473. 

Goss, Charles A., 264, 265, 297. 

Gould, Harriet, 453. 

James, 163. 

Mary H., 440, 447. 

Rufus, 447. 

Sarah F., 448. 

William, 453. 

William R., 361, 370, 413, 427, 438, 
440 ; biographical sketch, 447 ; 468. 

& Walker, 360, 361, 370, 423,448. 
Gould's Block, 427. 
" Gov. Lincoln," steamer, 334. 
Governor, votes for, 472-478. 
Grafton, 5, 8, 34, 123, 125, 146,201,203, 

237,353. 355,398, 454,470. 
Graham, Roland, 267, 297. 
Grammar School, 226, 373. 
Grand Army of the Republic, John Sedg- 
wick Post, No. 21, 411 ; A. G. Biscoe 
Post, No. 80, 412. 
Grand Army Block, 359, 375, 413, 427. 
Grange, No. 116, P. of H., 407. 
Grant, General, 263. 
Graves, G. W., 338. 
Gray, William J., 368. 
Great Middle Meadow, 35. 
Green, John, 105. 

Joseph, 197. 

Jr., Joseph, 467. 

Myron D., 262, 268, 297. 
Greene, Rev. Benjamin A., 233, 339, 341. 

Mary E., 272. 

Mrs. Nathaniel, 434. 
Greenwood, Abner R., 251, 252, 253, 298. 

Charles, 255, 298. 

Charles O., 259, 298. 

Enoch, 196. 

William H. H., 262, 268, 269, 270, 

29 8 , 3 26 » 3 2 9- 
Gregory, Daniel, 220. 
Gregory's Inn, 220, 227. 
Gregson, Rev. John, 240. 
Griffin, Rev. Thomas, 424, 425. 
Griggs, Clark R., 470. 

Samuel, 228. 

Samuel M., 87, 334, 335, 379, 397, 
436 ; biographical sketch, 445 ; 468, 
469, 470. 

& Co.'s Block, 219. 
Grimke, Archibald H., 403. 
Groton, 22, 26. 
Grout, James, 138. 

Jonathan, 467. 



492 



INDEX. 



Grout, Joseph, 460, 466. 

Joshua, 169, 196. 

Moses, 467, 470. 

Samuel, 467. 

Susanna, 433. 
Grove Street school-houses, 374. 



Hadley, 23. 

Hale, George F., 257, 299. 

Halloway, William, 466. 

Hammock, Mrs. Sarah, 433. 

Hampshire County, 103. 

Hancock, John, 472, 473. 

Hanley, Francis, 259, 270, 299, 329. 

Hannon, Michael C., 25S, 299. 

Haraden, George C, 252, 253, 271, 299, 

3 2 9- 

John W., 255, 299. 
Hardy, Aaron, 101. 

Charles H., 257, 299. 

Jr., Daniel, 163. 

Elijah, 196. 

Phinehas, 101, 160, 191, 231, 465, 
466. 

Jr., Phineas, 163. 
Harlow, Albert E., 269, 326. 
Harmon, Captain, 68. 
Harmony Conference, 217. 
Harnesses, manufacture of, 357. 
Harper's Ferry, 263. 
Harrenslayer, Frederick, 267, 299. 
Harrington, Benjamin, 197. 

Caleb, 103. 

Charles A., 264, 299, 337. 

Charles L., 255, 300. 

Edwin F., 264, 300. 

Eli, 163. 

Francis, 25S, 300. 

Frank A., 252, 300. 

Fred G., 468. 

George, 47. 

John, 163, 197. 

Joseph, 161, 197, 202. 467. 

Lawson, 355, 468, 470. 

Nahum, 470. 

Samuel, 13S, 467. 

S. A., 47. 
Harris, Henry A., 255, 270, 300, 329. 

Thomas, 459. 
Harrison, President, 396. 

John K., 267, 300. 
Hart, John A., 262, 268, 270, 301, 329. 
Hartwell, George E., 258, 301. 
Harvard, 355. 
Harvard College, 17, 61, 147, 377. 



Harvey, Abby, 449. 

Kev. Adiel, 232. 

Eben, 448. 

Edwin B., 373, 374, 393, 403 ; bio- 
graphical sketch, 44S ; 471. 

Rozella W., 448. 
Haskell, Abner W., 255, 269, 270, 301, 
3 2 9- 

Asa, 231. 

Charles B., 264, 301. 

Lyman, 252, 268, 301. 

Phineas, 196. 
Hassanemesits, the, 2S. 
Hassanemisco, 5, 8, 19, 30, 103, 454. 
Hastings, 2d Timothy F., 46S. 
Hatch, Rev. J. L., 237. 
Hathaway, Bowers C, 264, 301,389, 414, 

468. 
Haven, Hiram, 469. 
Haverhill, 36. 

Hawes, James, 160, 161, 162, 191, 196, 
202, 465, 467, 46S, 469, 470. 

Jr., James, 231. 

Josiah, 34. 
Hayden, John, 337. 
Haynes, John, 1S, 34, 459. 

Josiah, 1S, 34. 

Peter, 34. 

farm,, the, 12, 34, 43. 
Hay ward, James, 269, 302. 

Simeon, 49, 466. 
Hazzard, Thomas R., 267, 302. 
Heaphy, Patrick, 265, 302. 
Hearse, first, 210. 
Hemenway, W. A., 391. 
Henry, Charles S., 264, 302, 380. 
410,414, 427,441. 

John E., 468. 

Mary, 440. 

Mary C, 441. 

M. & J. E., 460. 

Nancy, 440. 

Polly G., 440. 

Samuel, 440. 

Samuel G., 334; biographical sketch, 
440. 

Block, 334. 

place, the Miletus, 46. 
Hero, Dr. J. H., 377, 378. 
Hervey, Rev. Nathaniel, 232. 
Hewins, Jeremiah, 365. 
Hibernians, Ancient Order of, Division 

No. 20, 338, 410. 
Hides, tanned and curried, 356, 357. 
High School, 226, 373, 375-377- 

house, 239. 



INDEX. 



493 



Highways, appropriations for, 56, 370. 
Hildreth, Rev. Hosea, 236. 
Hill, John M., 258, 302. 
Historical Society, Westborough, 211. 
Hobomoc, 5, 6, 479. 

Hockomocko Lodge No. 79, I. O. O. F., 
409. 

Pond, 3, 193. 

Relief Association, 409. 
Hodgkins, Hiram G., 252, 302. 
Holbrook, Daniel, 395. 

Jr., Daniel, 467. 
Holland, James H., 262, 302, 333. 

W. J., 376. 
Holliston, 125, 239. 
Holloway, Adam, 46, 47, 210. 

William, 18, 50, 63. 

and Wheeler farm, 18. 
Holmes, R. G., 358. 

& Co., C. M., 359. 

factory, 389. 
Holton, R. F., 393. 
Homan, John, 328. 

& Child, 224. 

& Peters, 224. 
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 461. 
Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, 1S0, 191. 
Hopkinton, 7, 66, 69, 100, 201, 203, 239, 

2 5o> 353. 357, 457- 
Horse-neck, 169. 

Horton, Myron J., 258, 264, 303. 
Hotel erected, 220. 

Westborough, 220. 
Hovey, Charles H., 252. 
How, Colonel, 69. 

Eliezer, 34. 

John, 11. 

Samuel, 462. 
Howard, Charles H., 413. 

Rev. E. A., 239. 

Simeon, 46, 47. 

Brook, 19. 
Howe, Charles M., 265, 303. 

Charles S., 264, 303. 

Edward C, 471. 

Hezekiah, 46, 138. 

John W., 264, 303, 

Samuel I., 471. 

Silas B., 248, 249, 271, 468. 

Capt. Thomas, 36. 

place, Austin, 46. 
" Silas, 334. 

house, the S. A., 460. 
Hoyt, Albert E., 394. 
Hubbard, Samuel, 474. 

Rev. W. M., 239. 



Hudson, 3, 14. 

Edward, 258, 264, 265, 303. 

Joseph, 147. 
Hull, 458. 
Hunt, Wellington L. G., 224, 395, 

396- 

& Kimball, 359. 
Huntoon, Rev. Benjamin, 236. 
Hutchinson, Capt. Edward, 23. 

Orville K., 402. 
Hydrants, 387, 420. 



Independence, Declaration of, 174, 

339- 
Fort, 251, 253. 

Indian history and legend, 4-9 ; names, 
5, 9; treatment by earliest settlers, 10- 
11 ; character, 21, 27; attack on Marl- 
borough, 26 ; attack on Chauncy village, 
36, 481 ; murder of Mary Goodnow, 
40 ; titles, 454. 

Insane Hospital, Westborough, 345, 403- 
452. 

Insurance Orders, 411. 

Ipswich, 125. 



Jackson, E. P., 376. 

G.J.,338- 

Josiah, 386. 

William, 475. 

No. 2, Steamer, 338, 386, 390. 
Jackstraw Brook, 416, 417, 461.. 

hill, 6, 461, 462. 

old line, 461. 

pasture, 6, 461. 
Jacob's meadow, 1 7. 
James, Black, 455. 
Janes, Elijah C, 264, 303. 
Jaquith, O. C, 337. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 212. 
Joan, Antonio, 262, 268, 304, 334. 
Johnson, John W., 258, 304. 

William, 198, 206. 

William H., 258, 304, 460. 

W. W., 368. 
Johnston, General, 269. 
Jones, Charles P., 395. 

John, 251, 264, 265, 304. 

Samuel R., 264, 304. 
Journal, Marlborough, 229. 
Joy, George M., 392. 
Judd, Abbie F., 414. 

Rev. Burtis, 239. 
Judson, Rev. Adoniram, 199, 201. 



494 



INDEX. 



Keane, Bishop, 424. 

Keevan, Edward, 258, 266, 304. 

Keith, Ellen L., 404. 

Kellog, Mr., 39. 

Kelly, John, 266, 305. 

Kemp, Francis E., 257, 268, 270, 305, 329. 

Kendrick, Sachem, 39. 

Kerly, Henry, 33, 34, 35. 

Kidder, Mrs. Ann M. M., 442. 

Charles W., 264, 266, 305. 
Kilkenny, Patrick, 266, 305. 
Kimball, Frederick W., 255, 305, 360. 

James M., 356. 

Noah, 468. 

William B., 251, 305. 

& Co. J. B., 224, 356, 357-358, 359- 

factory, the, 358, 359. 

Factory Association, 360. 
Kinders, Samuel B., 269, 327. 
King, Rev. Alonzo, 232. 

Samuel, 231. 

Thomas, 19. 
Kirkup, Charles A., 262, 268, 306. 

James S., 267. 
Kittredge, Rev. Charles B., 238, 335, 336. 
Knight, Dr. Henry S., 446. 
Knights of Labor, Westborough Assem- 
bly, No. 4191, 412. 
Knowlton, Nathan M., 6, 461. 

William, 250. 
Knowlton's shop, 364. 
Krakatau, 421. 



Lackey, Charles T., 264, 306. 

George A., 267, 306. 

John, 252, 307. 

Robert S., 258, 306. 
Laflin, John, 261, 307. 
Lakin, George B., 265, 307. 

Mrs. S. B., 251. 
Lamson, Charles H., 266, 307. 
Lancaster, 22, 25, 81, 100, 103. 

C. B., 360. 
Land-owners, earliest, 15-20, 454-464. 

grants, 454-464. 
Lathrop, Andrew J., 376. 

Joseph, 465. 
Lav.rel Hill Association, 410. 
Law, Emerson, 367. 
Lawrence, Amos A., 476. 
Leach, James, 407. 
Leather, Sealer of, 52. 
Lebanon, Conn., 203, 217. 
Lcbeau, Joseph, 264, 307. 
Lee, General, 263, 269. 



Lee, Edward, 252, 307. 
Leesboro', Md., 260. 
Leicester, 103, 123. 

G. V., 368. 

Piano Co., 333, 368. 
Leighton, Hazon, 387. 
Leland, John, 233. 

Luther K., 398. 
Lenard, Mr., 67. 
Leominster, 390. 
Leonard, Phoebe J., 403. 

Solomon, 196. 
Leverett, Governor, 25. 
Lexington, 22, 166. 

Battle of, 162. 
Libby, Tristram, 356, 384. 
Library, Public, 226-228, 379-380. 

Society, Union, 227. 
Lincoln, Dr., 382. 

President, 246, 247, 248, 256, 266. 

Benjamin, 472. 

Erastus M., 269, 307. 

Levi, 473, 474, 475. 

William R., 230, 402. 
Little, John, 262, 307. 
Livermore, Jonathan, 465, 466, 481. 

Mary A., 40S. 
Livingston, Murray V., 368. 
Lloyd, James, 474. 

Loker, William C, 264, 271, 308, 329. 
Long, Charles E., 25S, 308. 

John D., 477. 
Longley, Charles O., 264, 308. 

George A., 264, 30S. 

Joseph G., 258, 308. 

Jonas, 361, 384, 443, 465. 
Loring, George B., 330. 

Rev. Israel, 81, 86, 480. 
Lothrop, Samuel, 474, 475. 

Thomas L., 477. 
Loughlin, Richard, 266, 308. 
Louisiana, 247. 
Lovell, Alden, 252, 260, 309. 
Lovering, Harry B., 478. 
Lowbeed, Robert H., 267, 309. 
Lowd, Albert L., 269, 327. 

Charles Q., 258, 262, 309. 
Lowell, Edward, 262, 309. 
Lucas, Elisha S., 309. 
Lunenberg, 103. 
Lydius, Col., 37, 39. 

Lyman School for Boys, 53, 229-230, 33S, 
398-403. 

Theodore, 229, 399. 

Street, 30. 
Lynch, Michael, 252, 268, 309. 



INDEX. 



495 



Magner, William, 262, 268, 309, 338. 

Maguire, Patrick, 338, 363. 

Maguncook Mill, 456. 

Mahoney, James, 259, 310. 

Mails, 396. 

Main Street, 30. 

Mainerd, Jr., John, 34. 

Malloy, Mrs., 409. 

Mann, Charlotte, 452. 
David P., 467. 
Horace, 476. 
Salmon, 452. 
Samuel W., 266, 310, 337. 

Manteo, 7. 

Manufactures, 355-356; statistics of, 357, 
368; boots and shoes, 357-361 ; sleighs, 
361-363; straw hats, 363-366; bricks, 
366 ; boxes, 366 ; sewing-machines, 
367 ; trellises, 367 ; bicycles, 367-368 ; 
pianos, 368. 

Marble, Henry, 163, 172, 173, 174. 

March meetings, 52 ; moderators of, 465. 

Marlborough, 3, 5, 9; early history, 15- 
34 ; 40. 81, 100, 104, 123, 127, 146, 151, 
193, 203, 392, 455. 458, 459- 

Maro, 191. 

Marrotte, J., 389. 

Marsh, Jeremiah W., 262, 268, 270, 310, 

3 2 9- 
Marshall, J. F. B., 249, 250, 260, 470. 

Mrs. J. F. B., 251. 

Miss M. J., 251, 272. 
Martin, Thomas, 258, 311. 
Martyn, Rev. John, 20, 47, 480. 
Maryland, 263. 
Mason, Lowell, 220. 

Masons, F. and A.,Siloam Lodge, 409-410. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, 377. 

Historical Society, 479. 

Indians, 4, 5. 

school-ship, 400. 
Mather, Cotton, 115. 
Mayhew grant, 455-458. 

Thomas, 455. 
Maynard, Amasa, 163, 168, 197. 

Ann M., 442. 

Daniel, 466. 

David, 34, 46, 47. 49, 56, 59, 81, 
101, 138, 466. 

Ebenezer, 160, 197, 465, 469. 

Edward, 442. 

Horace, 5; biographical sketch, 441. 

James, 46, 107, 138, 442. 

Sir John, 441. 

John, 46, 47, 52, 53. 55. 62, 67, 104, 
in, 134, 13S, 145, 466. 



Maynard, Jonathan, 197. 

Leonard, 233. 

Luther, 467. 

Moses G., 467. 

M. A., 469. 

Phinehas, 467. 

Solomon, 163, 198. 

Stephen, 13S, 153, 161, 162, 165, 190, 
!96, 197, 466, 469, 470. 

Washburn, 442. 

place, the, 387. 
McCafferty, Matthew J., 477. 
McCarthy, Daniel, 268, 269, 310, 327. 

Rev. Francis, 424. 

John, 267, 311. 

Patrick, 25S, 310. 
McClellan, General, 256, 266. 
McCoy, Rev. J. J., 240, 424, 426. 

Michael, 258, 311. 

William, 266, 311. 
McCue, Timothy, 266,311. 
McCulloch, John, 163, 164. 

Joseph, 163. 
McDonald, James, 3S7. 
McEnamy, T., 426. 
McHough, Thomas, 266, 311. 
McKendry, George A., 265, 311. 
McLachlin, E. H., 376. 
McNulty, Richard, 267, 311. 
McPherson, William D., 394. 
McTaggart, James, 460. 
Mechanics' Association, 227. 
Medfield, 22, 24, 103. 
Medway, 203. 

Meeting-House, vote to build, 48, 50 ; 
land given, 53; description, 54-55; 
gallery built, 101 ; vote to enlarge, 
107; new meeting-house, 133-139,153, 
162, 480; steeple, 155, 208; new fea- 
tures, 208-209 ; sold, 223-224. 
Mellen, 197. 

Joshua, 355, 380, 382, 467, 470. 

Joshua N., 355, 467. 
Memorial Cemetery, 356. 
Mendon, 23, 81, 103, 203. 
Merrifield, Harriette, 452. 

William T., 452. 
Messenger, The, 424. 

Westborough, 228. 
Methodist awakening, 118. 

church, 231, 239. 

parsonage, 427. 
Middle Meadow, 15. 
Middlesex County, 103. 
Milford, 202, 368, 405. 
Military committee, 249, 254. 



496 



INDEX. 



Military company, 210, 249, 251. 
Militia, enrolled, 257, 258 ; ordered out, 

263. 
Milk business, 351-354. 

Company, Boston, 352. 

" Westborough, 352. 

Producers' Association, 353. 

Street boot-shop, 360, 389, 423. 
Mill site, Abner Prentiss's, 458. 
Miller, Daniel B., 255, 270, 311, 329. 

Eben, 144, 197. 

Fortunatus, 163, 164. 

James, 138, 197, 461. 

Jr., James, 163, 465. 

Josiah W., 264, 312. 

Shadrach, 196, 231. 

William A., 264, 312. 
Mills, Rev. Edmund, 200, 201. 
Miner, Alonzo A., 477. 
Minister, colonial days, 60-62, 70,84, 117, 

176. 
Ministers' Association, 151, 177. 

wooing, Mrs. Stowe's, 180. 

Worcester Association of, 119, 
Ministerial farm, 35, 45, 51, 52, 59, 192, 

194. 
Minute-men, 162. 
Missionary collection, first, 180. 
Mississippi, 247. 
Mitchell, Chauncy, 365. 

Lowell P., 266, 312. 

Rev. William, 239. 
Mockley, John, 257, 312. 
Moderators, March meetings, 465. 
Montague, Richard, 339. 

Urial, 389. 
Monument, Soldiers', 328-330. 
Moody, C. C. P., 228, 392. 

John W., 264, 266, 312. 
Morin, John, 259, 312. 
Morrissey, Andrew, 266, 312. 
Morse, Rev. Abner, 436. 

David, 197. 

Elijah, 444. 

Elisha, 439. 

George B., 259, 313. 

Lyman, 471. 

Martha, 439. 

Patty, 439. 

Seth. 164, 169, 170, 197, 467, 469. 

Thomas, 197, 467. 

house, the, 47. 

place, Deacon, 461. 
Mortimer, William, 262, 313. 
Morton, Marcus, 474, 475. 
Moseley, Rev. William O., 236. 



Moses, F. W., 337. 

Mount Pleasant, 359, 462. 

Mudge, Rev. Z. A., 239, 338, 339, 342. 

Munnanaw, David, 28. 

Murphy, John, 267, 313. 

Patrick, 426. 

Thomas, 258, 264, 313. 
Music, church, 112-117, 155-157, 204, 
209, 237, 242. 



Naggawoomcom, 5, 479. 
Naguncook, 8. 
Nails, manufactured, 355. 
Nason, Oliver, 196, 

& Co., J. S., 359. 
Natick, 455. 

National Straw Works, 451. 
New Braintree, 25. 
New England Lasters' Protective Union, 

412. 
New Haven, 201, 202. 
New York, 164. 
Newbern, N. C, 259, 262. 
Newspapers, colonial days, 60-61 ; mod- 
ern, 228-229, 391-394. 
Newton, Deacon, 26. 

Abbie F., 440. 

Abner, 101, 133, 469. 

Barnabas, 233, 439, 467, 469. 

Curtis, 470. 

Daniel F., 224, 359, 360, 370, 415; 
biographical sketch, 439 ; 444, 465, 
468, 469. 

Dexter, 398, 470, 471. 

Frank A., 264, 313, 440. 

Joseph, 31. 

Josiah, 46, 63, 93, 133, 138, 465, 466, 
469. 

Leander W., 471. 

Lucy G., 439. 

Moses, 359, 360, 444. 

Otis, 359, 468, 469. 

Thomas, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 
81, 101, 466. 

Vashty, 138. 
Nichols, Augustus F., 264, 313. 

Charles C, 255, 313. 

Fortunatus, 231. 

Joseph, 231, 467. 
Niles, Rev. Mr., 115. 
Nipmucks, the, 5, 23, 454. 
" No. 4 " school-house, 334, 389. 
Nonantum, 8. 
Noon-house, 206. 
North, Daniel, 198. 



INDEX. 



497 



North Bridgewater, 229. 
Northborough, 3, 14, 15, 18, 19, 30, 34, 
35. 47, 100, 104, 106, 145, 153, 191, 193, 
194, 2oi, 203, 210, 250, 331, 332, 334, 
353, 398, 459, 47°, 480. 
Northfield, 23. 
Nottage, Rev. W. A., 239. 
Nourse, B. Alden, 19, 101,415, 464,468, 
471. 
Benjamin, 467. 

Benjamin B., 248, 249, 260, 271, 
367, 398, 414 ; biographical sketch, 

443 ; 468. 

David, 359. 

Emma S., 444. 

Frank L., 444. 

Henry B., 338, 444. 

Lois, 443. 

S. Whitney, 266, 314. 

Theophilus, 443. 

Walter B., 444. 

White & Co., 367. 

place, the, 389. 
Nowell, Increase, 18. 

Mrs. Parnell, 18. 
Nurse, Daniel, 196. 

Oakes, Nathaniel, 20, 46, 47, 109. 

O'Brien, 2d, John, 363. 

Occupations, statistics of, 369. 

Odd Fellows, Hockomocko Lodge, No. 

79, 4°9- 
O'Dea, Michael, 266, 314. 
Okommokamesit Hill, 9, 11, 14,21,25, 

28, 30. 
" Old Arcade," The, 56, 133, 222, 359, 

409, 427. 
Oldham, 461. 

Olmsted, Prof. Denison, 435. 
Onomog, 9. 
Ordination, Rev. E. Parkman's, 84-86. 

Rev. E. Rockwood's, 214. 

Rev. J. Robinson's, 202. 
Organ, in church, 209, 216, 237. 
Orn, Azor, 472. 
Orthodox Church, 229. 
Otis, James, 15, ^58. 

Harrison G., 473. 
Oughtzorongoughton, 38, 481. 
Oulton & Peters, 224. 
Ountassogo, 39. 
Oxford, 103. 



Packard, Rev. Asa, 203. 
Benjamin W., 229. 



Paine. Alice, 453. 

Charlotte M., 452. 

Henry W., 476. 

Horace M., 452. 

John A., 452. 

N. Emmons, 403, 404 ; biographical 
sketch, 452. 

Jr., N. Emmons, 453. 
Palfrey, John G., 476. 
Parentage, statistics of, 346. 
Park Association, 406. 

Building, 427. 
Parker, Charles O., 258, 264, 314. 

Gardner, 209, 355. 

George W., 271, 468. 

Hananiah, 160, 161, 470. 

Isaac, 197. 

Joel, 380, 465. 

J. E., 333, 364. 
Parker's Folly, 355. 
Parkman, Ann Sophia, 443. 

Anna, 432. 

Breck, 163, 196, 218, 219, 220; bio- 
graphical sketch, 431 ; 433, 469. 

Charles, 211, 223, 227, 370, 383,395; 
biographical sketch, 432, 469, 470, 

474- 

Charles B., 395, 407, 432 ; biograph- 
ical sketch, 433. 

Charlotte S., 432. 

Rev. Ebenezer, 18, 39, 46, 51, 52, 55, 
62 ; chosen minister, 63-64 ; jour- 
ney to Westborough, 66 ; estab- 
lishing church, 66-74, 81-84 ; 
ordination, 84-86 ; church records 
and diary, 87-89 ; in church affairs, 
90-95 ; salary, 102 ; opposes divi- 
sion of town, 109-111 ; church 
music, 1 1 5-1 17; 119; anniversary 
sermon, 125-130; minister of first 
precinct, 131-132, 134; family 
matters, 136 ; 140 ; sermon, 147- 
150 ; 177 ; asks for fire-wood, 181 ; 
health, 185; death, 186; charac- 
ter, 187-188; epitaph, 189; 191, 
431 ; history of Westborough, 479- 
481. 

Jr., Ebenezer, 106, 136, 185. 

Elias, 65, 66, 185. 

Rev. Francis, 69. 

Hannah B., 432. 
" S., 432. 

Joanna, 432. 

Joanna F., 432. 

Lucy, 106. 

Lucy P., 432. 



498 



INDEX. 



Parkman, Lydia, 106. 

Mary, wife of Ebenezer, 82, 95, 105 ; 

daughter of Ebenezer, 106, 136. 
Maria D., 432. 
Mary A., 432. 
Robert B., 432. 
Samuel, 136, 20S, 432. 
Susan B., 432. 
Susannah 136, 432. 
Susannah B., 432. 
Thomas, 106, 136. 
William, father of Ebenezer, 65 ; son 

of Ebenezer, 136. 
Building, 220, 224. 
store, 331, 379, 432, 433, 437. 

Parshley, Rev. J. H., 233. 
Parsonage fund, 194, 202. 
Parsons, William, 408. 
Patterson, F. W., 366. 
Paupers, 144-145, 198. 
Pawtuckets, the, 4. 
Peck, Frank E., 367. 
Peninsular Campaign, 256. 
Penniman, Mr. 447. 
Pennsylvania, 263. 
Perrin, Payson H., 385. 
Peters, Andrew, 465, 467, 469. 

Miss Hannah, 394. 

Lovett, 228, 380, 382, 407, 465, 467, 
470. 

Onslow, 395. 

farm, the, 399. 
Petersburg, 267, 268. 
Philip. King, 27. 
Philip's War, King, 21-2S. 
Phillips, Elijah M., 221, 468. 

Mrs. E. M., 250, 272. 

Samuel, 472, 473. 

Stephen C, 475, 47 6 - 

Wendell, 408, 477. 

Street school-house, 374, 426. 
Phinney, Rev. Barnabas, 238. 
Piano movements, manufacture of, 356. 
Pianos, manufacture of, 368. 
Piccadilly, 220, 355, 363. 
Pierce, Charles H., 229, 264, 314, 391, 
393, 415, 416,417,468. 

Rev. Granville, 237. 

J. H., 359, 444- 

& Jackson, 359. 
Pike, Marshall S., 255, 314. 

Moses, 197. 
Pilgrims, the, 8, 112. 
Pitman, Robert C, 476, 477. 
Ploughs, manufacture of, 357. 
Plymouth, 199. 



Pokanokets, the, 4. 
Polls, number of, 371. 
Poor, appropriations for, 370, 381, 383 ; 
care of, 380 ; overseers of, first chosen, 
145. 
Population, statistics of, 344-345. 
Port Hudson, La., 262. 
Porter, Winfield P., 413. 
Post-office, 24S, 331, 394-397- 

Block, 220, 228, 366, 396, 397, 410. 
Potomac, 256. 

Pound, the town, 56, 101, 144. 
Powder-house, built, 211. 
Powers, F. W., 337. 

Michael, 257, 314. 
Pratt, Bathsheba, 82. 

Charlotte M., 443. 

Edward, 454. 

Isaiah, 124. 

John, 46, 47, 48, 50, 56, 465, 466. 

Jr., John, 46. 

Lucius G., 403. 

Martin, 197. 

Col. Nymphas, 443. 

Phineas, narrative of, 7. 

Silas, in. 
Precinct, the first, 131. 

second, 145. 
Prentice, Rev. John, 81, 85, 480. 
Prentiss, Abner, 458. 
Prescott & Son, A. J., 393. 

W. W., 393. 

J., 389. 
Prices, regulation of, 167-168. 
Priest, Edmund H., 266, 314. 
Prince, Frederick O., 478. 
Printing-office, 391, 394. 
Protective Union Shoe, 334, 389. 
Providence, 169. 
Prudential Committee, 372, 373. 
Psalm-book, Ainsworth's, 112; Bay, 113- 

114. 
Psalms, Tate and Brady's, 155-156. 
Puffer, Rev. Reuben, 203. 
Putnam, J. Brainard, 468. 

Quaboag, 23. 
Quinn, James E., 338. 
Martin, 266, 315. 
Quinsigamond, 462. 

Railroad, Boston & Worcester, 220, 
223. 
station, 335. 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 6, 7. 
Rantoul, Robert, 399. 



INDEX. 



499 



Rasle, Sebastian, 68. 
Rattlesnakes, 31. 
Raymond, Charles E., 342. 

George H., 271, 332, 333, 342, 46S. 

Mrs. George H., 441. 
Readville, 263, 265. 
Redican, Rev. J. F., 424. 
Rediet, John, 20. 
Reed, Daniel, 196. 

William A., 367, 397, 406. 
Reform Club, 408. 
Reform School (see Lyman School). 
Regiment, Fiftieth, 258, 262. 

Fifty-first, 257, 258, 259, 262, 412. 

Fifty-seventh, 261, 262, 267, 268. 

Fifty-sixth, 261. 

Fourth (H. A.). 265, 

Second N. C, 272. 

Sixth, 248. 

Thirteenth, 251-253, 258, 260, 262, 
268, 272. 

Thirty-fourth, 256. 260, 263. 

Thirty-seventh (U. S. colored 
troops), 272. 

Twenty-first, 259. 

Twenty-second, 255. 
Reilly, Thomas H., 468. 
Relief Association, Firemen's, 388. 

" Hockomocko, 409. 

" Massachusetts, 272. 

Religion, in colony, 49-50, 74-81, 147- 

150. 
Remington, Jonathan, 43, 45. 
Representatives, 470-471. 

first chosen, 103. 
Republican party, 212, 246, 266. 
Rescue Hook & Ladder Co., 387, 390. 
Reservoirs, 386. 
Restorationist Society, 233. 
Revolutionary War, beginning of, 150- 

*53> i5 8 " I 76. 
Rice, Adonijah, 37, 38, 198. 
Alexander H., 477. 
Amos, 257, 315. 
Anna, 20, 81. 
Asaph, 47, 481. 
Asher, 37, 38, 39. 
Beriah, 101. 
Caleb, 459. 

Charles, 46, 138, 147, 466. 
Charles A., 259, 315. 
Charles P., 330, 407, 468, 470. 
Ebenezer, 481. 
Edmund, 20, 34, 37, 40, 46, 47, 52, 

53. 8 i> 466, 469> 
Edwin, 392. 



Rice, Eliezer, 67, 101, 111, 138, 141. 

Elisha, 197. 

Gershom, 459. 

Henry G., 259, 315. 

Jacob, 34, 466, 469, 481. 

James, 34. 

Jesse, 233. 

John, 259, 315. 

Jonah, 466. 

Joseph, 34. 

Josiah, 107. 

Mary, 20. 

Nahor, 37, 41. 

Noah, 101. 

Persis, 139. 

Samuel, 197. 

Seth, 469. 

Silas, 37, 38. 

Thomas, 19, 20, 23, 31, 37, 40, 46, 
47. 49. 5°. 5 1 . 5 2 > 55. 462, 465. 
466, 469, 481 . 

Timothy, 37, 38, 39, 481. 

Zebulon, 144, 468. 
Richards, Henry, 66. 

Henry V., 266, 315. 
Richardson, Rev. George N., 237. 
Rider, Eleazer, 197. 
Rifle Company, Westborough, 250, 251, 

254. 
Roads, 334. 
Robbins, Arthur W., 264, 266, 315. 

Chandler, 252, 316. 

Daniel, 196. 

E. H., 473. 
Robert College, 451. 
Roberts, Edward, 255, 316. 

John, 267, 316. 
Robin, Joseph, 18. 
Robinson, A., 389. 

George D., 477, 478. 

James F., 258, 264, 316. 

Jennie J., 376. 

J. H.,471. 

Rev. John, 201 ; dismissed, 211-214 ; 
trial, 215-217, 335. 

John T., 264, 316. 

Samuel, 55, 466. 

Thomas T., 426. 
Rockwell, Julius, 476. 
Rockwood, Rev. Elisha, 187, 214, 218, 
227, 233-237 ; dismissed, 238 ; 335, 470. 
Rogers, William E., 269, 316. 
Roman Catholics, 232, 240, 333, 423-426. 
Ross, Harvey C, 252, 263, 316. 
Rowell, Whittemore, 353. 
Royce & Co., H. A., 360. 



500 



INDEX. 



Ruggles, Draper, 375. 

Isaac, 196, 467. 

Sanford, 407. 
Russell, Henry S., 403. 

Thomas, 266, 317. 

William E., 478. 
Rutland, 103, 125. 

Sagamore, John, 6. 
Sanborn, Alfred L., 251, 317. 

Greenleaf, C, 228, 248, 249, 271, 
33 2 > 468. 

John, 467, 469. 
" heirs of, 370. 
Sanderson, John W., 252, 262, 268, 317. 
Sandra, Francis H., 261, 317. 

farm, 419. 

pond, 3, 416, 417, 418, 419. 

water, 387. 
Sanford, Rev. David, 203. 
Sanger, John W., 259, 317. 
Sanitary Commission, 271, 272. 
Sargent, John G., 264, 318. 

Moses H., 336. 
Sawyer, J. H., 338. 
School Association, Westborough, 226, 

377- 
Schools, act of 1647, 96 ; system, 97-100; 

districts, 194-198, 226, 373 ; 372-379; 

evening school, 374 ; appropriations, 

37°, 375 5 statistics, 375. 
Schouler, General, 270. 
Scriptures, first read in church, 139. 
Searles, George B., 252, 264, 318. 

George W., 264, 318. 
Seawall, Henry, 458. 
Secession, ordinance of, 247. 
Sedgwick, General, 411. 
Selectmen, first chosen, 49; 52, 107; 

list of, 466-468. 
Settlers, first white, 13, 46-47; 54,479. 
Sewall, Samuel E., 475. 

diary of Judge, 52, 120. 
Shaker hoods, 365. 
Shambeau, Foster, 264, 318. 
Shattuck, Mr., 66. 
Shays's Rebellion, 194. 
Sheaf, The Westborough, 229, 392. 
Sheehan, Patrick J., 266, 318. 
Sheldon, Rev. Luther H., 238, 335, 336, 

379, 4° 2 - 
Shepherd, Allen G., 402. 
Sheridan, General, 263. 
Sherman, Aaron, 196, 407. 

Asa, 407. 
" Shoe," the, 463. 



Sherrin, Father, 240. 
Shrewsbury, 18, 30, 34, 42, 43, 100, 103, 
104, 144, 146, 191, 200, 202, 233, 250, 
2 55> 2 59> 353. 459, 460, 470, 479. 
Shute, Samuel, 45, 65, 69. 
Sibley, Prescott, 265, 318. 
William H., 251, 318. 
" & F., 386. 
Sidewalks, appropriation for, 370 ; con- 
crete, 334. 
Sinking funds, appropriation for, 370. 
Sixth Unattached Company, 263. 
Slattery, James, 252, 319. 

Thomas, 266, 319. 
Slavery, in colonies, 66 ; 246. 
Sleighs, manufacture of, 225, 356, 357, 

361-363. 
Slocum, William F , t 449. 
Smalley, George N., 365, 366, 410, 416, 

451. 
Smart, Theodore B., 337, 364. 
Smith, Albert W., 238, 333 . 
Charles E., 338, 389. 
George L., 338, 366, 389, 447. 
Herbert O., 262, 268, 270, 319, 329. 
Timothy A., 249, 328, 370, 465. 
William A., 269, 327. 
Brown & Co., 359. 
Block, 359. 
Snow, A. J., 365. 
Elijah, 198. 
& Hewins, 365. 
Societies, 405 ; Thief-detecting, 405-406; 
Park Association, 406 ; Agricultural, 
406; Grange, No. 116, P. of H., 407; 
Young Men's Debating Society, 407 ; 
Reform Club, 408 ; Welcome Lodge, 
No. 150, 1. O. G. T., 409 ; Hockomocko 
Lodge, No. 79, 1. 0. 0. F., 409 ; Hocko- 
mocko Relief Association, 409 ; Laurel 
Degree Lodge, No. 44, D. of H., 409 ; 
Siloam Lodge, F. & A. M., 409-410; 
Bethany Chapter, No. 13, O. E. S. 
410; Division No. 20, A. O. H.,410; 
Village Improvement Society, 410; In- 
surance Orders, 411; John Sedgwick 
Post, No. 21, G. A. R., 411; A. G. 
Biscoe Post, No. 80, G. A. R., 412; 
Woman's Relief Corps, 412 ; F. L. 
Stone Encampment, No. 76, S. of V., 
412 ; Labor Organizations, 412 ; Young 
Men's Christian Association, 412-413 ; 
Board of Trade, 413 ; Historical Soci- 
ety, 413. 
Soldiers' Sewing Society, 250, 251, 260, 
271-272. 



INDEX. 



501 



Sons of Veterans, F. L. Stone Encamp- 
ment, No. 76, 412. 

South Carolina, 247. 

Sou th borough, 3, 14, 100 ; incorporated, 
101 ; 103, 146, 147, 203, 250, 255, 352, 

355. 396, 393, 45S, 47c- 
Southbridge, 368. 
Southington, Conn., 203. 
Southville, 360, 457. 
Spaulding, Hannah, 370. 
Spaulding's Block, 333. 
Spencer, 37, 38, 355, 368, 390. 
Spring, William, 163. 
Springfield, 23, 51, 104, 194. 
Squadrons, 195-19S. 
Square, the, 329, 333. 
Squier, Silas P., 266, 319. 
St. Luke's Church, 240, 389, 423-426 , 

rectory, 240 ; cemetery, 240. 
Stackpole, Rev. Stephen H , 233. 
Stamp Act, the, 151-153, 192, 194. 
Staples, Jeremiah, 266, 319. 

Samuel O., 258, 319, 237- 
Star of the West, steamer, 247. 
Starr, William E., 230, 402. 
State tax, 370. 
Steam-mill, old, 358. 
Steeple for meeting-house, 155, 20S. 
Sterling, 100, 355. 
Stevens, H. H., 393. 

William H., 267, 319. 
Stiles. Rev. Ezra, 180, 191. 
Stirrup Brook, 19, 29, 30, 40, 47 ; 

meadow, 15. 
Stocks, the town, 56, 101. 
Stone, Abijah, 225, 384, 407, 467. 

Bela J., 190, 356. 

Edgar V., 269, 320. 

Frank A., 259, 320. 

Frank L., 252, 320, 412. 

Frank S., 269, 320. 

George H., 255, 259, 320, 

J. Henry, 259, 320. 

John, 17. 

Jonas, 356, 359. 

Jonas A., 356, 385. 

Rev. Nathan, 147. 

Silas C, 375. 

Thomas, 359, 360, 444. 
Storms, 422. 

Stoughton, William, 454. 
Straw, Jack, 6-7, 462. 

hats, manufacture of, 357, 363-366; 

braids, 363. 
Straw-sewing machine, 364, 367. 
Strong, Caleb, 473. 



Sudbury, 12, 13, 22, 26, Si, 125. 

River, 3, 456. 
Sullivan, Andrew, 266, 321. 

G. W., 338. 

James, 473. 

James H., 255, 259, 270, 321, 329. 

Timothy G., 262, 268, 321. 
Sumner, Increase, 473. 

Rev. Joseph, 202. 
Sumter, Fort, 247, 256. 
Sunday-school, first, 218, 238. 
Sunsets, red, 422. 
Superintendents, school, 373. 
Sutton, 101, 103, 231, 454, 479. 
Swan, Henry E., 402. 
Sweeney, J. Frank, 257, 321. 
Sweetzer, Rev. S. B., 239. 

Theodore H., 476. 
Swift, Rev. John, 81. 
Symmes, Rev. Thomas, 115 

Taft, Annie E., 451. 

George H., 451. 

Henry K., 366, 426 ; biographical 
sketch, 451. 

Solomon J., 255, 261, 321 
Tainter, Simon, 465. 
Taintor, David, 196. 

Simeon, 134, 136. 
Talbot, Emily, 403. 

Thomas, 477. 

place, the, 461. 
Talcott, James M., 230, 402. 
Talmage, De Witt, 408. 
Tanneries, 356. 
Taplin, John, 147. 
Tarbell, Mr., 39. 
Tarr, Caleb, 269, 327. 
Tate, Nahum, 155. 

& Brady's Psalms, 155, 204. 
Tavern, first, 219. 
Taxation, 370, 371. 
Taylor, Fred J ., 387. 
Temperance, 218, 229, 408. 
Temple, Richard, 163. 
Tennent, Gilbert, 122. 
Tenney, Eldad, 449. 

Sarah E., 449. 
Tewksbury, Charles B., 413. 

George M., 248. 
Texas, 247. 

Thacher, Rev. Peter, 69, 82. 
Thanksgiving Day, 184. 
Thaxter, Samuel, 43, 45. 
Thayer, A. W., 377. 

Rev. F. A., 239. 



502 



INDEX. 



Thief-detecting Society, 405-406. 
Thomas, Isaiah, 191. 
Thomlin (or Tomblin), Isaac, 34, 46, 47, 
49, 52, 81, 92, 466. 

Jr., Isaac, 81. 
Thomson, Abbie M., 447. 
Thompson, Charles P., 477. 
Thread factory, 219, 356. 
Thurston, Mr., 351, 352. 

Charles H., 342, 393. 

Samuel, 163. 

Surviah, 139. 
Tidd, Squire S., 264, 321. 
Tirrell, Rev. A. W., 239. 
Tithingman, 52, 136. 
Todd, Rev. W. G., 237, 330. 
Tookanowras, 38. 
Topography, 1-3. 
Town clerks, list of, 468. 

hall, erected, 225 ; 250, 251, 375 ; re- 
modelled, 332 ; 379. 

lines, perambulated, 100. 

meeting, first, 48 ; second, 50 ; third, 

5 2 I 54- 

officers, 465-469. 

records, 56, 89, 145. 

treasurers, 52, 469. 
Townsend, Benjamin, 46, 47. 

Joshua, 97. 

Nathan, 163, 169, 170. 
Transcript, the Westborough, 229, 391, 

393- 
Treadway, Mr., 18. 
Tresilian, Thomas, 394. 
Tribune, Westborough, 394. 
Tripp, Willard D., 404. 
Trowbridge, Alfred L , 258, 264, 321. 

J. A., 251, 368. 
Tucker, Thomas, 223. 
Tufts, Rev. James, 451. 
Turner, Melzar G., 251, 322, 337. 

Samuel S., 364, 367. 
Turnpike, B. & W., 218-219. 
Twitchel, Thomas, 196. 

2d, Thomas, 196. 
Tyler, Sarah A., 438. 

John E., 438. 

Underwood, Austin, 356. 
Union Block, 333, 360, 393, 415. 

Building, 365. 

Hall, 237. 

Hose Co., No. 1, 390. 

Publishing Co., 394. 
Unitarians, 223, 224, 234, 236-237. 
Universal Disputant, the, 408. 



Universalist Society, the, 233. 

Upton, 144, 146, 201, 202, 250, 255, 353, 

3 6 4. 454. 479- 
Utrecht, peace of, 42. 
Uxbridge, 103, 146. 

Valley Forge, 172. 

Varnum, Joseph B., 474. 

Veritas Redux, 73-80. 

Vicksburg, Miss., 260. 

Village Improvement Society, 334, 410. 

Virginia Convention, 165. 

Waban, 455. 

Wachusett Mountain, 2, 31, S5. 

Wadsworth, Captain, 2^. 

John, 467. 
Wahginnacut, 6, 462. 
Wales, Rev. Mr., 203. 
Walker, Cephas N., 257, 322. 

George A., 264, 265, 266, 322. 

Irving E., 267, 268, 270, 322, 329. 

Joseph, 357. 

Lyman S., 257, 322. 

Melvin H., 252, 263, 322, 338, 340, 
361, 403, 413, 448. 

Rev. William H., 232, 379. 
Wallace, Austin, 255, 323. 
Walley, Jr., Samuel H., 399. 
Wamesit, 455. 
Wamesits, the, 5. 
Wampanoags, the, 4. 
Wampas, Anne, 454. 

John, 454. 
War, King Phillip's, 21-28; Queen 
Anne's, 36; French and Indian, 146- 
149; Revolutionary, 150-153, 158-176; 
War of, 1812, 210 ; Civil, 245-273. 
Ward, Anna, 34. 

Artemas, 433. 

Increase, 34, 46, 47. 

Oliver, 460, 465, 466. 

Sarah, 433. 

Thomas, 46, 47, 52, 57, 69, 98, 102, 
465, 466. 

William, 44. 
Ware, Beriah, 197. 

Charles A., 264, 323. 
Wamer, William R., 251, 323, 379. 

Mrs. William R., 441. 

& Brigham, 224. 
Warner's Corner, 43. 
Warren, Aaron, 197, 467. 

Abner, 467. 

Anson, 385, 387, 468. 

Asahel, 370. 



INDEX. 



503 



Warren, Asaph, 465, 467, 468. 
Benjamin, 197. 
Daniel, 46, 47, 48, 50, 52, 62, 97, 

101, 102, 104, 196, 465, 466. 
Jr., Daniel, 163. 
David, in, 444. 
George W., 258, 264, 323. 
Harris C, 263, 323. 
Horatio, 356. 
Jr., John, 467. 
Jonah, 138. 
Levi, 169, 170. 
Seleucas, 47. 
Stephen, 252, 324. 
Thaddeus, 147, 163, 197. 
Timothy, 138, 145, 154, 196, 467. 
Washburn, Rev. Azel, 442. 
Emory, 476. 
Rev. George, 451. 
Laura A., 442. 
William B., 477. 
Washington, General, 164, 169, 212. 

(city), 260, 263, 265. 
Water Cure, 378. 
Watertown, 22. 
Water-works, 415-420. 
Watkins, Albert B., 378. 
Watts' hymns, 155-156, 204. 
Webster, Horace F., 471. 

(town), 36S. 
Weights and measures, 56. 
Welsh, Father, 240. 
George O., 404. 
Weld, Salem T., 255, 324. 
Wellesley College, 377. 
Wells, George D., 256. 
Wesson, Silas, 219, 377, 3S0, 382, 395, 

467, 470. 
Wesson's tavern, 48, 219, 226, 377, 395. 
Wessonville, 48, 219, 220, 356, 377. 

Seminary, 377. 
Westborough, situation, 1 ; topography, 
1-3, 31 ; Indian history and legend, 
4-1 1 ; first white settlers, 11-14 ; earli- 
est land-owners, 15-20; King Phillip's 
War, 21-28; movements toward form- 
ing town, 29-35 > Indian troubles, 36- 
41 ; incorporation, 42-45 ; beginnings 
of town life, 45-59; securing a minis- 
ter, 59-71 ; church organized, 72-74, 
81-84 ; town records, 89 ; church affairs, 
90-95 ; schools established, 87-100 ; 
new county, 101-104; beginning of 
division, 107-112; church music, 112- 
117 ; the first precinct, 131-146 ; French 
and Indian War, 146-149; beginnings 



of Revolution, 149-153; church music, 
153-158; in the Revolution, 158-176; 
church government, 176-180 ; old school 
districts, 195-198 ; pauper question, 
198, 380-382 ; second minister, 198-204 ; 
church usages, 204-206 ; improvements, 
206-211, 218-221 ; ecclesiastical trials, 
211-218; business development, 222- 
226 ; library, 227, 379-380 ; local papers, 
228-229, 391-394 ; later ecclesiastical his- 
tory, 231-241 ; the Civil War, 242-273 ; 
soldiers' records, 273-327 ; monument, 
328-331 ; fires and new buildings, 331- 
335, 423-427 ; centennial celebration, 
336-344 ; statistics of population, 344- 
346; agriculture, 346-355 ; manufac- 
tures, 35 5-369 ; occupations, 369 ; 
wealth, 369-371 ; schools, 372-379 ; 
care of poor, 380-383 ; fire department, 
384-390 ; banks, 397 ; societies, 405- 
414; water-works, 415-420; phenom- 
ena, 420-423 ; land grants, 454-464 ; 
town officers, 465-469 ; representatives, 
470-471 ; votes for governor, 472-478 ; 
Parkman's history of Westborough, 
479-481. 
Weston, 81, 85. 
Wheeler, Aaron, 210. 
Elizabeth, 210. 
Henry S., 470. 
John C, 261, 324. 

Joseph, 46, 47, 55, 81, 98, 102, 210, 
426, 465, 466. 
Wheelock, Eleazer, 163, 164. 

Moses, 163, 164, 169, 191, 196, 201, 

437, 4671 468. 
Sarah, 437. 
Whipple, Edward, 142. 

Francis, m, 133, 152, 154, 465, 466, 

469, 470. 
Jonathan, 465, 466. 
Whipsufferadge plantation, 14. 
Whipsuppenicke, 13. 
White, Frederick, 367. 
George K., 367. 
James W., 398. 
Cycle Co., 367. 
Whitefield, 122, 123. 
Whitehall, 457. 
Whiting, Rufus W., 352. 
Whitney, Mrs. Abbie, 370. 
Abbie M., 447. 
Alpheus, 447. 
Benjamin, 163. 

C, 366, 415, 426; biographical 
sketch, 447. 



504 



INDEX. 



Whitney, Eli, 192, 246, 355 ; biographical 
sketch, 434. 

Eli (not inventor), 196, 467, 469. 

Elijah, 196, 464. 

Frank C, 447. 

Nathaniel, 138, 466. 

Nellie E., 447. 

Rev. Peter, 20, 39, 47, 190, 203. 

Sarah, 447. 

Thomas, 463. 

&Co.,C, 366. 

Annexation, Elijah, 463. 

Hill, Eli, 460. 

House, the, 366, 426, 447. 

place, the, 20, 30, 36, 203, 224. 
Whittemore, Henry, 373, 376. 
Whood's Mr., 69. 
Wight, Daniel, 198. 
Wilderness, 267, 268. 
Willard, Rev. Mr., 335. 
Williams, Rev. Mr., 81, 85. 

Charles H., 252, 261, 324, 337. 

Samuel, 163. 
Williamsport, Md., 253. 
Willow Park, 395, 401. 

Seminary, 377, 378. 
Wilmarth, Butler, 377. 
Willson, Hubbard, 398, 426. 
Wilson, Mrs., 155. 

Henry, 475. 

farm, the, 402. 
Winch, Calvin M., 439. 
Winchester, Mr., 352. 

Fitch H., 471. 
Windham County, Consociation of, 217. 
Winslow, Charles P., 252, 253, 257, 263, 
264, 265, 324, 468. 

Ezra, 355. 
Winthrop, Governor, 6, 7. 

Robert C, 476. 
Wiswall, Edward H., 404. 

Frederick A., 257, 324. 
Witherbee, Daniel T., 265, 325. 



Witherby, Harlan F., 262, 325. 

Joseph, 34. 

place, the, 356, 358. 
Wolfe's victory, 150. 

Wood, Abijah, 257, 330, 366, 407, 467, 
470. 

Benjamin, 196, 202, 466, 469. - 

Edwin D., 258, 325. 

Joseph, 233. 

Samuel, 466, 468, 471. 

Solomon, 136. 

William, 196. 

&Co., R. D., 419. 
Wood for minister, 181. 
Woodman, George H., 447. 

Nellie E., 447. 

Robert, 266, 325. 
Woods, Benjamin, 52. 

Jesse, 382, 467. 

Seth, 198. 

William, 163, 164. 
Woodside, Samuel, 259, 325. 
Woodstock, 103. 
Woodville, 232, 331, 334, 384. 
Worcester, 30, 66, 103, 104, 156, 191, 194, 
204, 227, 259, 331, 334, 355, 368, 
382. 

County, incorporated, 103-104 ; agri- 
cultural statistics, 354-355; manu- 
facturing statistics, 368. 

Mutual Fire Insurance Co., 438. 

Polytechnic Institute, 377. 
Work-house, the, 198. 
Wrentham, 66. 
Wright, Joseph W., 269, 325. 

Yale College, 180, 192, 203, 434. 
Yellow day, the, 184, 420. 
Young America Bucket Co., 386. 
Young Men's Christian Association, 412- 

4I3- 
Debating Society, 338, 339, 407-408. 

Yorktown, 184. 



